Following a peak of infections with the highly infectious Omicron variant in late January, Denmark expects to return to normal life in March.
The forecast is by Danish epidemiologist Tyra Grove Krause, deputy director of the State Serum Institute (SSI) and government adviser on the coronavirus crisis.
Denmark, along with Britain, was among the first countries in Europe where Omicron caused a jump in infections. A record 23,228 new cases were registered in just 24 hours, making Denmark one of the countries with the highest number of daily infections in the world.
“Everything shows that Omicron is milder than Delta and that the risk of hospitalization is only half as high,” Krause told Danish media, citing a study by SSI.
“It will be another difficult month. But once it is over, we will be in a better position than before,” Krause said. “I think the infection rate will start to decrease in two months and we will be able to return to normal by March.”
In Twitter, Krause expressed cautious optimism that even after the Omicron wave, new variants would emerge, “with SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, it will become just another respiratory virus that we can live normally with.”
