Danish chief of health has claimed that Covid-19 Omicron is the cause of the end to the pandemic. He said, “We will have our normal life back in two weeks.”
Speaking to Danish TV 2, Tyra Grove Krause – the chief epidemiologist at Denmark’s State Serum Institute – said a new study from the organisation found that the risk of hospitalisation from Omicron is half that seen with the Delta variant.
She said that this has given Danish authorities hope for the Covid-19 epidemic in Denmark to be ended in just two months.
Tyra Grovekrause (pictured), chief epidemiologist for Denmark’s State Serum Institute, stated to Danish TV 2 that Omicron presents half the chance of being hospitalized as compared with Delta.
“I believe it will develop that within the next two-months, then I hope the infection starts to subside, and we can get our normal lives again,” she stated on Monday.
Despite early fears that Omicron could prolong the pandemic due to its increased level of infection, Ms Krause said it actually could spell the end of the pandemic.
According to the study, ‘Omicron has been here since the beginning and will spread a lot of infections in the following month. We’ll be in better shape after it ends.
According to the expert, Omicron’s highly contagious variant is milder and more people will become infected. However, they won’t cause serious complications.
This will result in a high level of immunity among the people, she stated.
Ms Krause stressed that there was still work to be done to beat the pandemic in the coming months, however.
She stated that Omikron would peak in January and she expects to see declining infections and less pressure on the healthcare system by February.
“But, we must make an effort to do so in January because it is difficult to accomplish.”
Pictured: People queue for rapid COVID-19 test in the center of Aalborg, Denmark, to the test site at Budolfi Church, Thursday, December 23, 2021. Officials in Denmark believe Omicron will end the pandemic.
The epidemiologist said Danes should continue to follow the now well-known measures to help slow the spread, such as good hygiene, social distancing where possible, and staying at home when symptoms present themselves.
She said that Omicron’s growing spread will put more pressure on Denmark’s healthcare system. “This will definitely be the problem in the future.”
Professor Lars Østergaard, chief physician at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Aarhus University Hospital, also looked towards the end of the pandemic in comments made on January 1.
He stated that although the coronavirus is not considered to be a pandemic indefinitely, it won’t disappear completely.
He said, “I don’t think that we will ever say goodbye to the corona.”
“But, we want such good immunity in people – partly due to new vaccines and partly because people are infected. We can deal with it as one of many infections that occur especially during winter months.
Ms Krause agreed, saying: ‘In the long run, we are in a place where coronavirus is here, but where we have restrained it, and only the particularly vulnerable need to be vaccinated up to the next winter season.’
Denmark is experiencing a rise in cases over the past weeks. On Sunday, it recorded its highest-ever seven-day average infection rate, with an average of 20,886 infections. On December 27, it reported the highest number of new infections ever.
The optimistic words of Ms Krause came just three days after Omicron was mentioned by the World Health Organisation.
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO chief Tedro, stated in a New Year’s Eve speech that if we end inequality we can end the pandemic and global nightmare we all have been through.
But the WHO also warned warned of trying times ahead, saying Omicron could lead to ‘a tsunami of cases’.
Ghebreyesus explained that “This…will continue to place immense pressure upon exhausted health workers, as well as health systems on the verge of collapse,”
Fear of creating a new recession, Western leaders hesitate to reinstate the same strict controls that were in place in 2020.
However, on-again, off-again restrictions still provoke frequent and sometimes violent anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests.
Both experts and non-experts hope 2022 will be remembered for a less fatal phase of the pandemic.