Denmark will lift all its remaining COVID-19 restrictions, including vaccine passports, on Sept. 10 after the country’s health ministry declared the
CCP virus “no longer a critical threat to society.”
“The epidemic is under control, we have record vaccination levels,” Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said in a
statement on Friday, according to a translation. “That is why we can drop the special rules we had to introduce in the fight against COVID-19.”
However, Heunicke said that despite Denmark being in a “good place” at the moment, the government would “act quickly if the pandemic once again threatens the essential functioning of society.”
Denmark was one of the first European nations to impose a partial lockdown in March 2020, closing down schools and other businesses. The country, like many others, has tightened and relaxed lockdown measures over the course of the pandemic. It was also one of the earliest countries to launch a COVID-19 vaccine passport system, doing so on April 21 of this year.
The Danish Council on Ethics had requested that the passport be used for the shortest time possible and protect private information.
Under the latest order, “a number of provisions in the Epidemic Act no longer apply,” which includes vaccine passport mandates, according to the health ministry’s statement. The requirement to show vaccine passports at certain businesses and venues
will expire on Sept. 1.
Vaccine passport systems have been flagged by some conservatives and civil liberties groups as a grave threat to the right to privacy, and it has been suggested that such systems would create a two-tiered society of those who are vaccinated and those who are not. New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles started implementing or will implement vaccine passports for bars, restaurants, and theaters—triggering lawsuits.
Earlier in August, an association
filed a lawsuit on behalf of a number of different independently owned restaurants against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio over the vaccine passport mandate.
“The executive order has rendered it impossible for anyone who chooses not to be vaccinated, for whatever reason, to work in the designated industries, wholly depriving them of their livelihood,” said the suit.
Elsewhere in Europe, meanwhile, France’s Parliament passed a bill last month mandating vaccine passes for similar businesses as well as long-distance travel, drawing massive protests across the country. Over the previous weekend, tens of
thousands demonstrated in Paris and other cities, and more protests are planned for the forthcoming weekends.
Switzerland
recently implemented its own “health pass” but only for large events where more than 1,000 people are in attendance.
