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COVID-19 RULES

‘I simply forgot’: Danish PM apologises for shopping without face mask

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has made a public apology after she was filmed shopping for clothes in central Copenhagen without wearing a face mask.

Published: 4 December 2021 20:33 CET
'I simply forgot': Danish PM apologises for shopping without face mask
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wearing a mask at a visit to a vaccination centre on Friday. Photo: Philip Davali/Scanpix

Writing on her Facebook page at around midday on Saturday, Frederiksen said that she had failed to take into account the new restrictions that came into force on Monday. 

“Yesterday, I forgot to wear a face mask when I was in a shop in central Copenhagen,” she wrote. “It was simply an oversight after the new rules were introduced, and I only became aware of it after a citizen filmed it.”

“I know this can happen to all of us. Just preferably not to me,” she continued. “I’m sorry, of course, and once again want to thank everyone for everything we all do to keep the infection down.”

Frederiksen made her post after the Ekstra Bladet newspaper published a video of her trying on clothes in the shop without a mask on.

Since Monday, it has been mandatory to wear a mask in shops under new tougher restrictions brought in to reduce the current high rate of infections in Denmark.

READ ALSO: The new Covid-19 rules which take effect in Denmark on Monday

This is not the first time a senior figure in Denmark’s fight against the pandemic has been caught not following restrictions.

In October last year, Søren Brostrøm, Director of the Danish Health Agency, failed to wipe down and disinfect a machine he had used at a fitness centre.

He was just one month later photographed working on a train without a face mask.

Under the new restrictions, those refusing to wear a face mask in a shop can face a fine of up to 2,500 Danish kroner. In the first instance, however, it is the responsibility of shop personnel to remind customers to wear a mask.

The incident heaps more pressure on the prime minister, who faces a parliamentary committee later this week investigating her decision to cull more than 15 million mink last year over fears of a mutated Covid strain.

The order was found to have no legal basis and led to a minister’s resignation. The committee is now investigating if Frederiksen knew there was no law allowing her to impose the measure.

The Danish parliament finally passed an emergency law banning mink farming, devastating a lucrative industry.

Denmark had been the world’s largest exporter of mink skins bred for their delicate fur, and the second largest producer after China.

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HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Published: 11 September 2023 12:48 CEST
Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

READ ALSO:

Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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