Seven additional people returned from the Hubei-province are now in Denmark
On the night before Monday, seven additional people arrived in Denmark from the Hubei-province. Everyone is feeling well and are now in two weeks of home quarantine.
The journey from the Chinese Hubei-province was arranged by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The last part of the journey was by a Challenger aircraft from Danish Defence, that landed in Aalborg Air Base on the night before Monday. It was a long journey from China with several transits in Europe and a change of route because of the storm during the night.
Everone was feeling well upon arrival. No one had symptoms of any illness and there was no grounds for hospital admission.
“We will have daily contact with all the returned people in order to ensure, that they are adequately informed about any precautions”, says Anette Lykke Petri, Head of Department of the Danish Patient Safety Authority.
Both on the journey from China and along the way, everyone has been continuously assessed by health authorities for symptoms of infection with the novel coronavirus and it has been a requirement for allowing further passage that the person was not ill. During the last part of the journey, a doctor from the Danish Defence accompanied the travelers and performed an individual assessment of each person before landing in Denmark. In the airport, they were met by ambulances that ensured the transportation within Denmark.
”We wish to extend a warm thank you to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Danish Defence and the pre-hospital emergency management teams for an outstanding collaboration on the repatriation”, says Søren Brostrøm, Director General of the Danish Health Authorities.
Statens Serum Institut will offer testing for the novel coronavirus to all the returned persons. The testing sample is collected by swabbing from the throat with a swap stick. The sample is tested at Statens Serum Institut.
About home quarantine
The time from possible infection until debut of the first symptoms appear is called ”the incubation period”. This period is for the novel coronavirus between 2 and 12 days. If you do not have any symptoms within 2 weeks of possible exposure, e.g. the date of leaving the Hubei-province, you are not infected.
When home quarantine is recommended after an individual assessment, The Danish Patient Safety Authority makes an arrangement of home quarantine with the individual person that the person stays at home for 2 weeks and for this period avoids close contact with other people. The Danish Patient Authority ensures that there is contact between the person in home quarantine and health personnel on a daily basis. The quarantine agreement extends to the entire household.
Individuals in home quarantine are instructed to measure their temperature twice daily and, if they develop symptoms, e.g. fever, cough etc., to immediately isolate themselves (e.g. by shut themselves in alone in at room of the house) and directly call an infectious disease specialist doctor at the University Hospital of Aarhus, Skejby, or Hvidovre Hospital. The doctor will decide what measures are necessary, e.g. by sending an ambulance in order for the patient to be admitted directly from his/her own home to an isolation ward at one of the two hospitals.