The Social Democrats, Denmark's ruling party, have urged the thousands of Black Lives Matters protesters that flooded the streets of Copenhagen to get tested for coronavirus amid fears that it could spark a new COVID-19 outbreak and a steep increase in cases.
Despite Denmark recently lifting its comprehensive lockdown and easing its coronavirus restrictions, public gatherings of over 50 people are still banned. Sunday's anti-racism demonstration gathered some 15,000 protesters. Other estimates were as high as 20,000.
Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor in virology at Copenhagen University expressed his worries about the numbers gathering ahead of Sunday's demonstration.
“If I look at it exclusively with my infection-spectacles on, it's a a problem”, he told TV2. “This is exactly the type of situation which you would prefer to avoid to stop the epidemic blooming up again”.
His colleague Søren Riis Paludan, a professor in virology at Aarhus University, suggested that individuals faced a rather small risk. “It's more society as a whole which is running a risk, as we are trying to avoid superspreader situations”, he said.
In order to mitigate the potential health hazard, the Social Democrats issued a testing call.
“There is no requirement or law that one should do it, but it is one's responsibility, one would assume, to use the testing capacity that is now in place and go and get tested”, Social Democrats political spokesman Jesper Petersen toldKristerligt Dagblad.
All adults in Denmark can now order a coronavirus test without even visiting a doctor, by simply logging into a special website dedicated to the coronavirus.
Sunday's demonstration, part of a wave of global protests triggered by the death of 46-year-old George Floyd, started outside the US Embassy and then moved to Christiansborg, the seat of the Danish parliament.
The event was partly organised by Black Lives Matter Denmark, and called for the government to speak out against the “brutality and murders by their close ally” the US, and to “root out systemic racism” in Denmark and the US.
The protests were backed by two parliamentary parties, the Socialist Left and the Red Green Alliance, which both took part.
While stressing the importance of holding such a demonstration, Socialist Left political spokesman Karsten Hønge said he had been worried that so many people were not keeping their distance.
“I think it is unbelievable that there's no attempt to keep distance. As far as I heard, no one at any point asked people to spread themselves out”, Hønge said.
Since the death of African American George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police, protests against police brutality have swept the US and parts of Europe, often devolving into violence, vandalism, arson, and looting.