[7][8] On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.

[11][13] Source: Statens Serum Institut[25] From late January to early February, several groups of Danish citizens were evacuated from China.

[38] One of the cases was former Danish national football player Thomas Kahlenberg, who had been infected at a birthday party in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

[44] On 8 March, there were eight new confirmed cases, including a patient first admitted to North Zealand Hospital Hillerød with symptoms resembling pneumonia.

[49] Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced major restrictions on this day, asking Danes to act with a sense of collective responsibility and community spirit in the face of coming hardships.

[53] On the same date, former footballer Thomas Kahlenberg announced that he had been declared fully recovered, making him the second publicly known recovery in the country.

[63] The Danish Health Authority changed its guideline to say that asymptomatic people can transmit the disease, from saying that the risk was "unconfirmed" or "very small" to "significant".

[64] It had previously been strongly criticized that workers in a retirement home were asked to continue working after having had contact with sick persons, again against all expert advice, and apparently because of Danish Health Authority guidelines.

[65] On 12 May, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced a new offensive testing strategy, which aims to "strengthen the contact tracing".

[67] The new testing strategy also charge the local municipalities with providing holiday centres, hotels or the like, as a voluntary offer of self-isolation.

The Ministry of Justice said that experience in dealing with COVID-19 in Denmark shows that there is a need for a consistent and transverse coordination and support of government efforts, for example to ensure the supply of socially critical infrastructure.

[69] The implementation of the new offensive test strategy, the detection of infection and better possibilities for self-isolation require a massive support from, among other things, the use of the test-system, security of supply and practical operation.

[89][92] On 11 March, the Danish Health Authority announced a change of strategy, which means that only people hospitalised with severe signs of respiratory illness or shortness of breath, will be examined for COVID-19 infection.

[97] Should it become necessary, each region has its own facilities for quarantining at least one thousand people,[98] and if containment of SARS-CoV-2 through normal isolation fails, more drastic measures can be implemented using the Epidemic Law (Danish: epidemiloven).

[102][103][104][105][106][107][excessive citations] The Folketing cancelled some of its regular meetings and hearings, and when voting a clearing system will be used to avoid having more than 95 members in the main chamber at any one time.

In an attempt to increase the space between people using public transport, more buses and trains were added to the schedules, and there were stricter limits on the number of passengers allowed in each.

[111] Starting on 13 March 2020, all people working in non-essential functions in the public sector were ordered to stay home for two weeks.

[113] These restrictions were announced with an acknowledgement that the circumstances would be difficult, and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen urged Danes to practice samfundssind (roughly, community-mindedness).

[51] The first documented use of this Danish word was in the 1936, and the then-Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning used the term to call for solidarity at the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

[114] On that same date, all secondary education (like gymnasiums), universities, libraries, indoor cultural institutions and similar places were closed, initially for two weeks.

[117][118] In late March, authorities acknowledged that the strategy of mitigation had partially worked, but had been less successful than the mass testing in China and South Korea.

During the peak of the outbreak on the Chinese mainland, Iran, the regions of Aosta Valley, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Marche, Piedmont and Veneto in Italy, Ischgl in Tyrol of Austria, and San Marino, all travel to these places was advised against, and during the peak in the rest of Italy, the rest of Tyrol in Austria, Madrid, Basque Country and La Rioja in Spain, parts of Germany, parts of France, parts of Switzerland, and Daegu City and North Gyeongsang Province (also known as Gyeongbuk) in South Korea, all non-essential travel to these places was advised against.

[131] As of 9 March, the list of high-risk regions included mainland China, part of South Korea, Iran, Italy and the Austrian state of Tyrol.

[138] Starting on 9 March, passengers on flights that originated in a high-risk region were not given access to Danish airport buildings, but instead were picked up directly from the plane and transported by special buses that could drive them to their home or other locality of quarantine.

[144] As of October 2022 the Danish Health Authorities recommend a booster vaccination to people aged 50 and over, as well as selected risk groups.

A very limited number of children at particularly higher risk of becoming severely ill may still be offered vaccination based on an individual assessment by a doctor.

[150] The 10 target groups in descending order of priority are as follows: As of 24 April, Denmark has a per-capita rate of 1,782 positive coronavirus cases per million people.

[152] On 23 June 2020, the Folketing decided to have the basis for the decisions behind the March 11, 2020, lockdown of Denmark, examined by an independent investigation team.

[155] As the lockdown of Denmark[156] was not an initiative that was recommended by the health authorities,[157][158][159][160] a significant focus in the report is the motivation behind the Government's desire to design and implement such an action, which in the ninth chapter of the report is shown to be most likely based on a series of nightly emails written on March 10, 2020, by the Permanent Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office.

[154] On 28 May 2024, the Folketing voted for an independent review of the country's handling of the pandemic to be made by VIVE, expected for release in late 2025.