Denmark reopened its kindergarten and elementary schools on Wednesday after it closed all schools on March 12, according to the BBC.
The only students that went back to class are kids that are eleven years old or younger, the BBC reported. In Denmark, kids are only required to go to school between the ages of 5 and 16.
Denmark has established certain conditions for students when they returned. For instance, children are not allowed to bring toys from home, and they must have washed their hands before coming to school, the local.dk reported.
Instead of parents entering the school grounds to pick up students, teachers are going to have students ready for parents to pick their children up outside the school.
While at school, children will play in smaller groups and be required to wash their hands often, according to the local.dk.
Director of the Danish Health Authority Søren Brostrøm said last week that young children are not being used as a coronavirus experiment test.
“It’s not an attempt. We do not use children, educators and teachers as guinea pigs. That is not the intention,” he said, according to Finas.dk. “In our estimation, it is perfectly sound in terms of health, with the controlled reopening that is planned.”
As of Wednesday, Denmark has 6,681 confirmed coronavirus and 309 deaths, according to worldometers.info. The number of people hospitalized in Denmark is currently at 380 people, which is down from a high of 535 on April 1, statista.com’s data showed.
When the Danish country is compared to Tennessee, its numbers line up with those of the Volunteer State.
Right now, Tennessee has 6,079 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 135 deaths and a total of 663 hospitalizations, Tennessee Department of Health numbers show. Besides being close in coronavirus situations, the two entities have similar population sizes as well. Denmark has 5.8 million people while Tennessee has a population of 6.8 million.
A key difference between Denmark and Tennessee is population density. Denmark has more population density at 347 people per square mile compared to Tennessee’s population density of 167 people per square mile.
Despite having fewer people per square mile, Tennessee is taking a different course than Denmark on its coronavirus handling. As Denmark relaxed restrictions on its economy and social distancing, Tennessee extended its stay-at-home order till April 30 and closed the rest of the school year.
The University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model shows Tennessee’s coronavirus peak resource day is scheduled to happen Thursday while Denmark’s peak resource day is projected on May 4.
– – –
Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Star News Digital Media. If you have any tips, email Zachery at [email protected].
