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COVID-19

Danish businesses could be fined thousands for failing to follow ‘corona passport’ rules

Businesses required to demand customers present valid ‘corona passports’ under Denmark’s requirements for lifting restrictions could face heavy fines for not complying with rules.

Published: 30 March 2021 17:27 CEST
Danish businesses could be fined thousands for failing to follow 'corona passport' rules
Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

Owners of small businesses that do not live up to the requirements can be fined 3,000 kroner, while medium-sized and larger companies can be fined 6,000 and 12,000 kroner respectively.

The potential fine amounts were confirmed by the Danish Ministry of Justice to newspaper Politiken.

“The intention is that there will be set rules (stating) that failing to comply with corona passport rules can be punishable with a fine,” the ministry said via written comment.

The use of fines to enforce the corona passports was already confirmed, but the amounts had not yet been clarified. 

Denmark has previously announced plans for the introduction of a ‘corona passport’, which will serve as a crucial part of the reopening.

Set up as a smartphone application, the ‘corona passport’ certifies that the holder has had a negative test in the last 72 hours, a vaccination or has recently recovered from Covid-19, conferring immunity to the disease.

Paper certificates are also being distributed to vaccinated Danes or those who have tested negative but do not have a smartphone. 

Starting on April 6th, the passports will be required for people wanting to go to hairdressers, and for when outdoor service of food and drinks resumes on April 21st.

READ ALSO: How will Denmark use ‘corona passports’ in post-restriction reality?

Small businesses are defined as having up to nine staff. Medium-sized businesses are those with 10-49 employees, and large companies have 50 or more people on their payroll.

For each of the three categories, fines increase on second and third offences: to 6,000 and then 9,000 kroner for small businesses and 12,000-18,000 kroner or 30,000-45,000 kroner respectively for medium and large companies, according to Politiken’s report.

Meanwhile, a customer can also be fined for refusing to leave a business after being denied its services due to not fulfilling corona passport requirements.

The company has the right to call the police in such a situation. This can result in a 2,500 kroner fine to the customer: the same amount as for fines which can currently be given for breaching assembly limits or face mask requirements.

Member comments

  1. How does a foreign visitor to Denmark obtain a Danish corona passport? I am fully vaccinated with the Pfizer
    vaccine in the United States. I wish to visit my girlfriend in Denmark in April under the “Solemn Declaration on relationship for use in connection with entry.” I do not belong to the Danish medical system.

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COVID-19

Anti-vaxxer assaults Covid-era Italian PM Conte at rally

An anti-vax campaigner on Friday assaulted Italy's former premier Giuseppe Conte, who imposed strict restrictions at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, his political party said.

Published: 6 May 2023 08:49 CEST
Anti-vaxxer assaults Covid-era Italian PM Conte at rally

Conte was “attacked by an anti-vaxxer in Massa”, a small Tuscan city where he was attending an election rally, his opposition party the Five Star Movement wrote on Facebook.

News agency Ansa said the man struck Conte in the face, blaming him for the lockdown policies imposed during the pandemic and other measures. Police officers later took him away.

As well as his own party, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “solidarity” with Conte.

“Any form of violence must be condemned without hesitation,” Meloni said in a statement. “Dissent must be civil and respectful of people and political groups.”

Prime minister from June 2018 to February 2021, Conte was the head of government when the Covid-19 outbreak suddenly struck northern Italy in February 2020.

Italy was the first country outside China to suffer a major outbreak of Covid-19.

The virus has killed nearly 190,000 people in Italy to date, according to the health ministry.

Conte imposed stringent coronavirus restrictions in the early phase of the pandemic, including an economically crippling shutdown and the mandating of face masks in public.

His successor as prime minister, Mario Draghi, imposed a compulsory coronavirus health pass in September 2021 tied to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Conte’s early decisions during the breakout, including one not to impose “red zones” in two hard-hit areas, are the subject of an ongoing judicial inquiry.

Investigating magistrates suspect that Conte and his government underestimated the contagiousness of Covid-19 even though available data showed that cases were spreading rapidly.

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