It's only the beginning though, if anything Denmark is more open than the US:

"If you are fully vaccinated and resident in one of these countries, you can enter Denmark without test or self-isolation:

EU/Schengen: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands and the Vatican City.
COVID-19 risk-countries: Australia, Argentina, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Kuwait, New Zealand, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Uruguay.
COVID-19 risk-regions and -areas: Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
OECD-countries (non-EU): Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States."

We need a negative test the day before flying into the US. Some states in the US still have mask mandate, and in LA county during the prime holiday seasons mask is required even outdoor in Six Flags.

Doesn't Denmark have a mask mandate for public transport use? It certainly seems that way to me at CPH, on trains, buses, taxis and ferries around. It seems like food and beverage venues in Copenhagen have a mask mandate for patrons when the patrons aren't seated. Same for shops and grocery stores?

And aren't the legitimate nightclubs and discos in Copenhagen now closed, while bars must close by midnight? I thought they even killed off the booze bus activities, although who knows if the bus operators even do much about that other than post a sign about that.

Yep, Denmark isn't much better. The only place in Europe that is business as usual right now is Sweden.

Belarus? It's in Europe too.

I'm not sure they are as open as Sweden. And it's much worse place to be :) I've been very happy in Sweden for 14 months. And while I enjoyed my trip to Minsk few years ago, 5 days is just about my limit.

I'll choose Copenhagen each and every day over Minsk. Including during this pandemic.

True but I'm talking more about travel restrictions, whether one needs a negative test the day before boarding a plane to the US.

In today’s news, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark tests positive for COVID-19. It would appear she got her booster shot about three weeks ago.

Well, there is some data suggesting that omicron spreads 70 (!) times faster than delta. If that's the case, we are up for a brutal winter in terms of infections. Pretty much everyone will get infected within weeks or months. Let's just hope that it is indeed a very mild variant in terms of symptoms.

Some of the close friends of her kids have Covid-19 currently.

The life is getting uneasier in Denmark during the holiday season. The daily infection numbers are going through the roof, and the authorities are now admitting a shortage of staff not only at the hospitals, but also long lines for the population wanting to get vaccinated.

As I was reaching out to local family and friends, one reported that there has been no increase in the enforcement by staff on public transportation. One example are his trips on the metro, regrettably supporting the stereotype of the younger generation among non-ethnic groups, whose lack of mask use is proportionally very distinct.

Just yesterday, such a young woman was sitting a couple of rows away, but he sensed she wasn’t the hardcore defiant type, likely someone who was stuck between family and socierty. A female staff person happened to come by to check his ticket, and pointing discreetly, he was asking if she was checking for mask use too. But she might be exempt, the answer was. Can you ask?, he requested.

And the staff person did. And the passenger didn’t say she was exempt. The staff person pulled out a mask to give her, and the passenger put it on. On the way back, the staff person revealed a smile on her face, happy that it worked. And that’s how life is too in Denmark during the holiday season.

I assume that there is a correlation between the likelihood of wearing a purchased mask and a person’s household income/wealth level even in Denmark. Paying out of pocket for masks when even paying the local bus/train fare is a a more considerable financial consideration than average is unfortunately only part of the explanation for such differences in behavior. Disposition toward risk and uptake of “information/misinformation” also tends to vary. Teenagers and young adults tend to be more willing to take risks than the old blue-haired ladies; maybe disposition toward risk also varies by socio-economic class and it shows in a willingness to ignore the mask mandate.

Sweden has no public mask mandate other than conditional recommendations, and yet there is sort of the same dynamic as in Denmark about who was more likely and less likely to wear masks when using public transit.

Interestingly, during the mask recommendation last winter, I found young Svenssons to be more likely to wear masks than seniors. This year it's a bit more random. But it's hard to draw any conclusions based on that little sample that bothers with masks in Sweden.

Old Swedish seniors on buses in Malmo and Gothenburg were and still are more likely to wear masks on public transit than the proverbial young Svensson children and grandchildren on the same buses. That was the case last year at this time and still is. In Stockholm it was a different dynamic than in Malmo and Gothenburg.

Ouch. Vast restrictions from this Sunday until January 17.

Overblik: Kultur- og nattelivet lukker ned
https://www.tv2ostjylland.dk/oestjyl...vet-lukker-ned