Denmark announced on Friday, December 17, the closure of cinemas, theaters and concert halls and a new restriction on nightlife in an attempt to curb the surge in cases of Covid-19 and the new variant Omicron. The Scandinavian country has recorded a new all-time high of more than 11,000 cases in the past 24 hours, including a new high of more than 2,500 of the Omicron variant, the government said at a press conference.
“Theaters, cinemas, concert halls will have to close”, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a press conference. “We need to limit our activity. We must all limit our social contacts ”, she called.
Denmark, at the forefront of sequencing, is one of the countries to have detected the most cases of Omicron on its soil, and the authorities expect it to become the majority in the coming days. The measures announced on Friday have yet to be approved by parliament.
Bars and restaurants close at 11 p.m.
“Our goal remains to keep society as open as possible”, said Mme Frederiksen, excluding confinements like the one decided in spring 2020 “Because we have vaccines”. The government will also demand the closure of other gathering places, such as amusement parks, convention centers or museums.
If the Christmas holidays have already been extended to counter the surge in cases, the executive still plans to return to school when the new school year begins on January 5. Nightlife, already planed last week, will be further shortened, with bars and restaurants closing at 11 p.m. and a ban on serving alcohol after 10 p.m.
Almost a month after its identification, the Omicron variant appears very contagious and seems to escape vaccines in part, with however an unknown as to the severity of the infections it causes.