Stockholm, Sweden
The Swedish government announced on Monday that it had closed the border with Denmark, where cases of the new variant of the coronavirus were discovered for health reasons and flights from the United Kingdom were suspended.
The closure of the border is to prevent Danes from coming to Sweden to shop, as stores on the Danish side are closed, Swedish Interior Minister Mikael Damberg told a news conference.
Like several other European countries, Sweden immediately suspended flights from Britain for 48 hours following the emergence of a problematic new strain of the coronavirus, and people who have recently been to Britain have been called for tests.
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“The new variant of the virus has also been discovered in Denmark and some other countries,” the minister revealed, referring to nine cases identified by the Danish health authorities.
However, unlike Sweden, Denmark decided to close its shopping centers and shops during the Christmas holidays in light of the second wave of the coronavirus.
“There is a clear risk that Danes will be drawn to Sweden to buy their gifts or spend time in Malmoe,” said Damberg, while the Scania region of southern Sweden is badly hit by covid. 19.
According to the Danish Institute for SSI Diseases, the nine cases in Denmark were detected by ‘a posteriori’ sequencing between mid-November and early December. These cases suggest that the “British” species has been in circulation outside the UK for several weeks.
On Sunday, the European Center for the Prevention and Control of Diseases (ECDC) did not rule out the new species from circulating outside British territory. According to press information, a few cases have been found in the Netherlands and Australia, as well as in Italy and Belgium.
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The Danish authorities emphasize that they have better sequencing capabilities than most other countries and therefore have a better chance of identifying cases.