COPENHAGEN, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Several Danish ministers and parliament members have gone into self-quarantine after at least two members of the Folketing (Parliament) tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.
The infections have affected the day's order of business in Parliament, based at Christiansborg Palace, which also houses the Prime Minister's Office and the Supreme Court.
Question Time in Parliament has been postponed till Wednesday at the request of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
"I do not find it appropriate for the parties in Parliament to appear physically today," Frederiksen said in a press release on Tuesday.
According to the release, Minister of Justice Nick Haekkerup attended a meeting last week in which two parliament members who tested positive for COVID-19 were also present. This meeting took place soon after Haekkerup had met the prime minister.
Haekkerup has gone into self-isolation with clear symptoms of COVID-19, said the press release.
Besides Haekkerup, eight ministers from the governing Social Democrats have also isolated themselves, and several of them are now waiting for their test results, the Danish news agency Ritzau reported on Tuesday.
This group includes Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod and Minister of Finance Nicolai Wammen, who also attended a meeting with Haekkerup.
Furthermore, four members of parliament have been confirmed as infected with COVID-19 within the past 24 hours, according to Ritzau.
Soren Pape Poulsen, the leader of the Danish Conservative Party, is the first party chairman to have tested positive for coronavirus in Denmark, Ritzau said.
Nevertheless, it is still unknown whether the politicians were infected during their work at Christiansborg, which has installed a formidable array of restrictions since the spring to limit the spread of the virus among politicians.
Nationally, the number of COVID-19 infections continues to rise unabated, with Denmark reporting a new all-time high of 1,353 cases in the past 24 hours.
The total number of confirmed infections now stands at 49,594, while the number of deaths has risen by four to 728 since the start of the pandemic, according to the Statens Serum Institut's daily update on Tuesday.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, countries including France, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are racing to find a vaccine.
According to the website of the World Health Organization, as of Nov. 3, there were 202 COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, and 47 of them were in clinical trials. Enditem
