COVID-19 – With masks in sight, busy offices and concerts drawing tens of thousands, Denmark is dropping vaccine passports in nightclubs on Friday, ending its final COVID-19 containment.
The vaccination passports were introduced in March 2021 when Copenhagen slowly began to relax restrictions.
They were abolished in all venues on September 1st, except in nightclubs, where they will no longer be needed as of Friday.
“We are definitely on the front lines in Denmark as we have no restrictions and thanks to the introduction of vaccination we are now on the other side of the pandemic,” Ulrik Orum-Petersen, promoter for Live Nation, told AFP.
On Saturday, a sold out concert in Copenhagen welcomed 50,000 people, a first in Europe.
On September 4th, Live Nation organized its first open-air festival with the aptly named “Back to Live”, which gathered 15,000 people in Copenhagen.
“Being in the crowd and singing like before has almost forgotten about COVID and everything we’ve been through in the past few months,” said Emilie Bendix, 26, a concert-goer.
Denmark’s vaccination campaign has made rapid progress, with 73% of its 5.8 million population being fully vaccinated and 96% of those over 65.
“Strive for freedom of movement”
“We are aiming for free movement … What is going to happen now is for the virus to circulate and find those who are not vaccinated,” epidemiologist Lone Simonsen told AFP.
“Now, thanks to the vaccine, the virus is no longer a threat to society,” said Simonsen, who works at Roskilde University.
According to the World Health Organization, the Scandinavian country has benefited from public adherence to government guidelines and the adopted COVID-19 strategy.
“Like many countries, Denmark has taken public health and social measures to reduce transmission throughout the pandemic. At the same time, however, it has relied heavily on voluntary compliance by individuals and communities, ”said Catherine Smallwood, WHO Emergency Adviser for Europe.
With around 500 daily COVID-19 cases and a reproduction rate of 0.7, the Danish authorities say they have the virus under control.
However, Health Minister Magnus Heunicke has promised that the government will not hesitate to quickly reintroduce the restrictions if necessary.
Authorities insist that returning to normal life must be combined with strict hygiene and isolation of the sick.
The WHO continues to regard the global situation as critical and urges caution.
“Every country needs to remain vigilant if the epidemiological situation changes,” said Smallwood.
Denmark has announced that it will keep a close eye on the number of hospital admissions – currently just under 130 – and carry out careful sequencing to track the virus.
A third dose has also been available for risk groups since Thursday.
Simonsen said the vaccines had so far guaranteed immunity to variants, “but if escape variants (which are resistant to the vaccine) should emerge, we need to rethink our strategy.”
Christian Nedergaard, who owns several restaurants and wine bars in Copenhagen, said that while everyone is happy to be returning to normal life, “the situation is still complicated”.
“The memory of the coronavirus will fade very quickly for some people, but not for everyone, and for restaurants this time has certainly changed the rules of the game,” he said.
“The industry needs to think about how to become more resilient.”
Travelers entering Denmark are still required to present either a vaccination record or a negative PCR test, and a mask is required at airports.