This is stated by Bente Møller, head of unit at the Danish Agency for Patient Safety, after a meeting with the municipality’s mayor.
– We recommend all citizens in Ishøj to be tested – also previously infected and already vaccinated citizens, she says.
According to Mayor Ole Bjørstorp from Ishøjlisten, it is necessary to intervene.
– These are serious measures, but it is necessary, because we must have this incidence rate significantly reduced. So we have to find the scrappy funds, he says to TV 2.
In the last seven days, there have been 142 cases of infection in the municipality.
This corresponds to an incidence – number of infected per 100,000 inhabitants – of 616.3, which is clearly the highest in Denmark, figures from the Statens Serum Institut show.
The previous model for automatic closure of municipalities was abolished in September, when coronavirus became no longer a socially critical disease.
The infection in a municipality is now considered high by the health authorities if in one week it has more than 500 infected per 100,000 inhabitants. If this happens, action is recommended.
This is the first time that a municipality has exceeded that limit since the model for closure was abolished.
The Danish Agency for Patient Safety therefore also recommends that children in day care institutions, schools, SFOs and clubs in Ishøj are primarily with children and young people from their living room, regular group or class.
However, students should not be sent home right now, says Bente Møller.
– It may make sense to send some of those school classes home with a lot of infection. But it has also just been autumn holidays, so it is important to say that they have not necessarily infected each other at school, she says.
Ishøj is also the municipality in the country with the lowest proportion of vaccinated. 62.1 percent of citizens over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated, while at the national level it is 75 percent.
– It is clear that it is a problem that there is such a relatively low vaccine coverage. The very best thing is to get more people vaccinated in those areas, says Allan Randrup Thomsen, professor of virology at the University of Copenhagen.
But according to Christian Wejse, a specialist in infectious diseases at Aarhus University, we can expect to see increasing infection in society in general.
– The curve we are on now is clearly rising throughout the country. It is clear that it is becoming more pronounced in areas with low vaccine adherence. But I do not think it will be limited to those areas.
– But it is not certain that it will necessitate special measures, because if a very large part of the infected are vaccinated, then I will not expect that it will mean so much to the hospitalization numbers, he says.
The Danish Agency for Patient Safety is monitoring the situation in the municipalities to see where local initiatives might be needed. However, it is not relevant right now, it sounds.
The other municipalities with the highest infection in Denmark are close to Ishøj on the Copenhagen west sign. This applies to Glostrup, Albertslund and Brøndby.
Source: The Nordic Page