The Danish emergency management is continuously updating in order to prevent transmission of COVID-19
During the past 24 hours, the Italian Ministry of Health has reported more than 130 cases of COVID-19 due to infection with the novel coronavirus. Several locally acquired cases in other countries, such as Iran, South Korea and Singapore, have also been reported. As the transmission in countries outside of China is developing, the risk of cases occurring in Denmark is also increasing.
”We are closely monitoring the development in Italy and the rest of the world. We do this through information from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and their updates on the situation. Later today there will be a meeting in the Centre and probably an update of the recommendations for handling the outbreak in Europe will be issued”, says Director General of The Danish Health Authority Søren Brostrøm.
Following the update from the European authorities, The Danish Health Authority and Statens Serum Institut will update the risk assessment. We also expect to launch updated guidelines for health personnel during the day of tomorrow.
The strategy for Denmark is still to contain potentially infected individuals and their contacts, but also to keep ready in case of a situation with several infected persons at once (continuous transmission).
“The central point of our strategy in preventing transmission is still to quickly detect and isolate infected individuals and track down people they may have been in contact with while contagious”, says Søren Brostrøm, Director General of the Danish Health Authority.
”As we observe transmission of the infection in Italy, COVID-19 is of course moving closer to Denmark. We therefore have to prepare for a scenario where continuous transmission is occurring within the European borders”, says Executive Vice President of Statens Serum Institut Kåre Mølbak. He continues: “We now know that most people by far who are infected with the novel coronavirus only develop mild symptoms with the disease clearing up on its own. It will primarily be elderly and weakened individuals who will develop serious symptoms”, says Kåre Mølbak.
Information about COVID-19
- The Danish Health Authority has published online information on COVID-19 on their website. Here you will find answers to common questions.
- The Danish Health Authority has launched a hotline that provides general information with telephone number 72 22 74 59.
- If you are going traveling, we also recommend that you consult the travel recommendations of The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs specific to the country that you are travelling to