The first Dane with COVID-19 is doing well and is in home isolation

In Danish 27 FEB 2020, In English 04 MAR 2020

This article in Danish

Statens Serum Institut has analyzed a patient's throat swab and was able to confirm that the test was positive for new coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2.

The man came home with his wife and son from a skiing holiday in Lombardy on Monday, February 24, and has since had a cough, fever, etc. On Wednesday, February 26, the family was examined in an isolation room at the Department of Infectious Medicine at the Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, where they were tested for coronavirus. Because the family was reasonably well-off, they were then sent home in home isolation while awaiting trial answers. The husband tested positive, while the wife and son tested negative.

The hospital has agreed that the family will continue to be in home isolation as they are well-being and do not need hospital treatment. The hospital will be in daily contact with the family and if they need examination or treatment in the hospital, they can be admitted immediately. The Danish Patient Safety Authority has been in contact with the family tonight, and agreed that they are in home quarantine with daily close monitoring. At the same time, the Danish Agency for Patient Authority has begun to trace persons who may have been in close contact with the patient.

“The guidelines of the Danish Health Authority have been followed. High praise to the staff at Zealand University Hospital in Roskilde for an impressive handling. We have at the Danish Health Authority a strong focus on safe handling. In our new guidelines, we had just recommended the possibility of home isolation, including patients infected with the new coronavirus. If you are not so ill that you need hospital treatment, then it is best to be home, so you do not risk spreading infection in the hospital”says Søren Brostrøm, Director General of the Danish Health Authority.

The new infection case, which is the first in Denmark, does not change the current risk assessment issued by Statens Serum Institut and the Danish Health Authority on Tuesday, February 25, where the assessment is low risk that we see widespread infection in Danish society, and low risk, that our health care system is being challenged.

“Following developments in Italy over the weekend, we had expected to see cases of COVID-19 in Denmark soon, so we are not surprised. We must expect to see more cases in the coming days and weeks. But our strategy is to contain the spread of infection in Denmark. We do this by quickly diagnosing COVID-19 and by treating in isolation, while also detecting and managing people who have had close contact with the infected so that they can be quarantined," says Søren Brostrøm, Director General of the Danish Health Authority. Søren Brostrøm adds that in Denmark we have a well-functioning emergency preparedness and a health care system, which acts quickly on suspicion of infection with novel coronavirus.

Read more about new coronavirus and the disease COVID-19