Since the New Year, nearly one in four citizens who have been infected with corona have been non-Western immigrants or descendants.
This is shown by figures from the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), writes Jyllands-Posten.
More precisely, non-Western immigrants and descendants have accounted for 23 percent of those infected so far this year. This must be seen in the light of the fact that this group makes up 8.9 percent of the population.
In comparison, people of Danish descent make up 70 per cent of those infected this year, but 86.2 per cent of the population.
In other words, non-western immigrants and descendants are overrepresented among those infected with corona in Denmark.
However, this is not new, as it has been a general trend throughout the epidemic, SSI figures show.
Jyllands-Posten has spoken to a number of professors who point to language barriers and housing and working conditions as some significant conditions.
One of them is Marie Nørredam, professor and research leader at the University of Copenhagen. She believes that what can be changed is communication. It is also there that she believes that not enough good efforts have been made.
Morten Sodemann, professor of clinical medicine and head of the Department of Immigrant Medicine at Odense University Hospital, instead demands better opportunities for isolation and the involvement of bilingual doctors in information campaigns.
– Not enough has been done, and it has not been done in time, says Morten Sodemann to the newspaper.
In a written response to Jyllands-Posten, Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke (S) says that “intensive work is being done on a large number of local and national initiatives to curb the problem”.
Recently, Denmark has been affected by a number of local outbreaks. This applies, for example, to the Vollsmose district in Odense and Ishøj Municipality.
Both places have a relatively high proportion of citizens with an ethnic background other than Danish.