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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

Norway’s Color line cancels Denmark ferry after collision

Norway's Color Line cancelled ferries between Larvik and Hirtshals in Denmark on Monday following a collision on Sunday.

Norway's Color line cancels Denmark ferry after collision

Color Line’s Superspeed 2 ferry has had to go to the dry docks in Denmark to have an assessment carried out on the dent in its hull it sustained when it hit a breakwater in Hirtshals on Saturday.  

“It will take a few days before the ship is in operation again,” Erik Brynhildsbakken, Color Line’s executive vice president for communications and public relations, told the Dagbladet newspaper on Monday morning. 

No one was injured in the collision, with all damage above the water line. 

The boat’s trip from Hirtshals to Larvik on Saturday evening was canceled after the collision, and all departures on Sunday were also cancelled.

The company is advising customers wanting to travel from Denmark to Norway to instead take the Superspeed 1 ferry to Kristianstad. 

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