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COVID-19 RULES

Denmark’s infectious disease agency does not recommend Covid tests for China arrivals

Travellers from China should not need a negative Covid-19 test when arriving in Denmark, the national infectious disease control agency State Serum Institute recommended on Saturday, in an assessment sent to the Ministry of Health.

Denmark's infectious disease agency does not recommend Covid tests for China arrivals
The assessment from the State Serum Institute will be discussed before deciding whether Denmark will reintroduce a Covid-19 test requirement for travellers from China. Illustration photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

In the assessment by the State Serum Institute (SSI), it was noted that there aren’t expected to be a large number of arrivals coming directly from China and that any tests would have a marginal affect on Danish epidemic control.

However SSI wrote that it was still important to keep an eye on new variants of Covid-19 and suggested that a sample of voluntary-based PCR tests could be introduced for travellers from China.

The assessment was requested by Denmark’s health minister Sophie Løhde, following a recommendation on Wednesday by European Union experts to tighten travel rules.

Infection rates in China are high after it abolished its ‘zero Covid’ policy in late 2022, although no precise numbers are available.

Several European countries, including France, Spain, Italy and the UK, had already introduced testing requirements, while Sweden on Thursday announced a similar step, as did Germany, with an added announcement on Saturday to discourage non-essential travel from Germany to China.

The United States, Canada, India, South Korea and Taiwan have also put testing rules in place.

Health minister Sophie Løhde also asked SSI to assess testing waste water from aircraft landed from China. SSI responded that there is limited experience in this.

SSI currently analyses samples from shared toilet tanks at four airports twice a week – Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Billund. The method would have to be changed in order to detect new Covid-19 variants, which would take up to four weeks to implement, according to the assessment.

Løhde has informed the parliamentary parties about the assessment and has asked the Epidemic Commission for an advisory assessment, she said in a press release. Once this is done, the recommendations will be discussed. 

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TRAVEL NEWS

Everything you need to know about travel to, from and around Denmark this Easter

Whether you're driving to the in-laws in northern Jutland, taking the train, or flying to your family elsewhere in the world, here's everything we know about travel to, from, or around Denmark this Easter.

Everything you need to know about travel to, from and around Denmark this Easter

Track work between Copenhagen and Odense 

From 11pm on Maundy Thursday (April 6th) till midnight on Easter Sunday (April 9th) there are replacement buses on the line between Copenhagen and Odense, as Denmark’s track operator Banedanmark carries out renovation work on the tracks. 

Express InterCity trains between Copenhagen and Aalborg and Esbjerg will also no longer stop in Valby, Ny Ellebjerg or Køge Nord from March 31st until April 10th.

From Easter Monday until April 29th, the InterCity InterCityLyn+ to Aarhus is suspended, with travellers instead advised to take the PendlerLyn during rush hour. 

You can find the details of the disruptions between Copenhagen and Slagelse here, and between Slagelse and Odense here

Check your journey on DSB’s Rejseplaner web app for the latest information. 

Roads 

The Danish Road Directorate warned in its Easter traffic forecast of heavy traffic on Friday March 31st, particularly during the evening rush hour, when normal commuting traffic in and out of Copenhagen will be made even worse by people travelling to visit relatives over Easter.

Traffic is also expected to be heavier than usual on Saturday April 1st, Wednesday April 5th, and Thursday, April 6th.

The directorate expects return trips to Copenhagen after Easter Sunday on April 10th to be spread over several days, reducing the risk of traffic problems.  

It expects particularly heavy traffic on the E20 between Copenhagen, Odense and Esbjerg on the Jutland coast, and also on the E45 between Kolding and the German border at Padborg.

The coastal roads where many Danes have summer houses are also likely to be affected, with the directorate warning of traffic on national road 11 on the west coast of Jutland between Ribe and Ringkøbing, national road 16 between Hillerød on the outskirts of Copenhagen and northern Zealand, and national road 21 between Copenhagen and the Sjællands Odde peninsular in northwest Zealand. 

Here are the roads where heavy traffic is expected. 

Source: Danish Roads Directorate

Air 

While there are no strikes planned at Danish airports or among staff at the airlines servicing them, anyone flying to Spain, Germany, Italy, or the UK’s Heathrow airport should check to make sure that their flight is not going to be disrupted. 

Between now and April 13th, ground services and cargo handling unions in Spain working for Swissport are mounting 24-hour walkouts every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. 

This will impact most Spanish airports, including Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Reus, Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Málaga, Almería, Salamanca, Valladolid, Burgos, Logroño, Zaragoza, Huesca, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Tenerife Sur airports. It is not yet clear which flights will be affected. 

The German transport unions Ver.di and EVG mounted a 24-hour mega strike on March 27th and have threatened further strikes around Easter if they do not get a better pay offer from transport operators. 

Those flying to Italy should keep in mind that air traffic controllers working for the company Enav are planning to strike from 1pm to 5pm on April 2nd. 

READ ALSO: Calendar of the transport strikes expected in Italy this spring

Finally, 1,400 security guards at Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport plan to hold rolling strikes for 10 days from March 31st until April 9th, threatening “huge disruption and delays… throughout Easter.”

Heathrow’s management have said that they aim to keep the airport “open and operational despite unnecessary threats of strike action by Unite”.

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