Stockholm, Sweden
The Swedish government announced on Monday that it has closed its border with Denmark, where cases of the new coronavirus variant have been detected for health reasons, and flights in the United Kingdom have been suspended.
The closure of the border aims to prevent Danes from coming to Sweden to shop, as shops are closed on the Danish side, Swedish Interior Minister Mikael Damberg told a news conference.
Like several other European countries, Sweden immediately suspended flights to the UK for 48 hours after the emergence of a new problematic strain of coronavirus, and people who were recently in the UK were called in for tests.
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“The new variant of the virus has also been detected in Denmark and other countries,” the minister said, referring to nine cases diagnosed by Danish health authorities.
However, in the face of the second wave of coronavirus, unlike Sweden, Denmark has decided to close its shopping malls and shops during the Christmas holidays.
“There is a clear risk that Danes will be attracted to Sweden to buy their presents or to spend time in Malmoe, for example,” said Damberg, while the Scania region in southern Sweden is severely affected by the 19.
According to the Danish Institute of SSI, the nine cases in Denmark were detected by “a posteriori” sequencing between mid-November and early December. These cases suggest that the “British” strain has been in circulation outside the United Kingdom for several weeks.
On Sunday, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) did not rule out the new strain circulating outside the UK. Some cases have been detected in the Netherlands and Australia, as well as in Italy and Belgium, according to media reports.
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The Danish authorities point out that they have better sequencing capabilities than most other countries and are therefore more likely to identify cases.