COPENHAGEN, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday announced a further tightening of COVID-19 restrictions in the country to contain the "new and disturbing" mutated virus strain discovered recently in Britain.
"We are again in a really serious situation. If we do not intervene, then more people will die, and our healthcare system will come under great pressure," Frederiksen told journalists.
The Danish authorities raised the level of risk of the epidemic from 4 to 5, the highest.
"This means that there is widespread societal infection and there is a risk of overcrowding in hospitals," Frederiksen said.
From Jan. 6, the country will reduce the maximum number of people who are allowed to gather in both public and private places from ten to five, and the social distancing requirement in public areas will be increased from one to two meters.
The new restrictions are scheduled to remain in force until Jan. 17, but "unfortunately it is our expectation that it may be necessary to extend all restrictions," said Frederiksen.
The prime minister also confirmed that the government is considering tightening Denmark's entry and exit restrictions.
The Statens Serum Institut (SSI) on Tuesday reported 1,992 new COVID-19 infections and a further 31 deaths in the past 24 hours. A total of 51,512 people have been vaccinated since Dec. 27, 2020.
Commenting on fears of the new virus variant called B117, Minister of Health and Senior Citizens Magnus Heunicke said it was "significantly more contagious" than the known strain. In his ministry's opinion, the new virus strain would become dominant in Denmark by mid-February.
The SSI said that as of Jan. 1, Denmark had already had around 800 cases of the B117 strain.
"We are right now in a real race against time. The next few months will be the most difficult," Frederiksen said.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 232 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 60 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Dec. 29. Enditem
