Spring in Denmark is officially cancelled. Danish prime minister had a press conference yesterday, March 23rd, and said that quarantine measures inside the country are being prolonged until 13th of April at least. Borders are closed until the same date. Just as a reminder quarantine measures mean that: all educational institutions and public institutions are closed down. All stores but grocery stores and clothes stores are closed down. All restaurants, cafe bars and bodegas (Danish version of pubs) are closed down. All public gatherings with more than 10 people are prohibited - and every body should maintain social distance. As she funnily pointed out, "lets stand together by being apart". That means that spring is officially cancelled in Denmark, which is, trust me a very serious thing. When sun finally comes out, it is an event that you want to enjoy, because there was basically no sun from the beginning of September to last week. That is a bit difficult to bear. And now when it is finally here, almost nobody can enjoy it. And again I feel blessed because I can still go to work so I can legally - and without guilty conscience - enjoy it.
On March 24th a new and interesting development in the fight against corona virus happened. Denmark seized private hospitals in order to get access to their equipment so it can fight better against the virus. And did it legally too. As corona-crisis was ramping up, Denmark prepared a whole set of laws that enables it to temporarily seize property during an emergency situation and even to enter peoples homes without a legitimate warrant, which is currently in effect(they didn't go through with this one). I can't shake the feeling that this act was totally uncalled for. What is as clear as daylight, is that everyone in Denmark is 100% on board to fight the corona virus. At the moment I heard the news, I thought that private hospitals would help the state in the fight against the corona virus if they just asked for it. And my hunch was spot on. A spokesperson from one of the private hospitals said that they would enable access to all their equipment within a day if Denmark reached out for their help. And now Denmark potentially brought into danger, patients from the private hospitals because all scheduled treatments had to be delayed. I am sorry, but this is just a knee jerking reaction that was completely uncalled for.
Plus it seems that Europe could do much better in the fight against the corona virus. A renown virologist, Bruce Aylard said, that the way to go is to is to trace and isolate people that got infected and then trace, test and potentially isolate their close relations. Which is the thing that South Korea did without stopping the societies and performing a murder of their economy. Fortunately, on March 25th first news started coming that Denmark will go on that route. How soon, we will see.
To change the topic and the country a bit. Amid the corona crisis lock-down, on Sunday 22nd of March Zagreb was hit by an earthquake of the magnitude 5.5 degrees on the Richter scale. City center got a serious beating, though not as bad as the earthquake from 1880. Newer buildings were undamaged, fortunately. In the aftermath of the earthquake authorities found one fatality. Needles to say that the quarantine was breached during this time. Which is totally understandable. When you have a choice between a building landing on your head or potentially contracting a virus that may kill you, of course you will go for the virus. The threat from the virus is not imminent. The city continued to shake for the next couple of days, which is common after a big earthquake but fortunately the chances for another big earthquake are very low.
The way it started, who knows what else does the 2020 have in store for us - first contact maybe?
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