Denmark sees highest daily COVID-19 infections in 2 months

Denmark has registered 1,127 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the highest daily rate since Aug. 24, according to figures from the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) on Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

In the wake of the figures, Minister for Health Magnus Heunicke took to Facebook to defend the government's strategy, which has seen the removal of nearly all restrictions against COVID-19 and a reduction in testing from Sept. 10.

"We know exactly what to do when we see the beginning of rises in infections this fall," he wrote on Wednesday afternoon. "Vaccines, testing, detection, isolation. But nothing can be done without support and unity in the population."

"We are closely following the movements in the corona pandemic, the latest initiative is the expansion of our wastewater testing, and the Danish epidemic is under control despite the increases here in October."

However, speculation that the infection may actually be more prevalent is being fueled by the SSI's own testing statistics, which reveal Wednesday's 1,127 new cases came after approximately 57,000 tests.

In contrast, the previous highest total, of 1,340 new cases in August, came after approximately 87,500 tests.

According to Svend Ellermann-Eriksen, chief physician at the Department of Microbiology at Aarhus University Hospital, infections will increase in Autumn as there will be closer contact once people move indoors.

In the last 24 hours, the SSI has also registered a further four deaths from COVID-19, bringing the national total to 2,694 deaths since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, the total number of infections stands at 371,286.

In addition, the SSI reports that currently 76.2 percent of the population, or 4,468,648 people have started the process of vaccination. Of these, 4,399,878 people, or 75.1 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.

A total of 26,121 people over the age of 65 have received the third dose, or booster shot against COVID-19.