More than 1,000 have responded to the Denmark helps Denmark campaign

27 March 2020

This weekend the Danish Medicines Agency launched the Denmark helps Denmark campaign wherein companies and manufacturers can make contributions to increase the supply of protective equipment like facemasks, gloves and shields for frontline staff. Thursday the number of responses exceeded 1,000.

The COVID-19 outbreak has led to a considerable increase in the use of protective equipment, and the municipal and regional healthcare services are running low. The Danish Medicines Agency has for weeks supported the regions and municipalities and worked with companies in and outside Denmark to supply frontline staff with protective equipment in the fight against COVID-19.

This weekend saw the launch of the Denmark helps Denmark campaign, which serves as a common centre that companies can contact if they can supply hand sanitizer, surgical masks and shields, for example.

This Thursday, the Danish Medicines Agency had received more than 1,000 responses.

“We are extremely busy going through it all, as there is a little bit of everything, but it is wonderful to see so many people wanting to help,” said Director General of the Danish Medicines Agency, Thomas Senderovitz.

Contributions from companies and institutions

Among the contributions are companies and manufacturers that have donated protective equipment, and gyms, continuation schools and day-care centres, closed during the lockdown, that have submitted smaller supplies of hand sanitizer to the municipalities.

The Danish Medicines Agency has so far made a preliminary screening of about 700 responses. Once the screening process is complete, we will evaluate the responses that could potentially be used. In they can, they will be forwarded to the municipalities and regions.

Collaboration with companies to switch production

The campaign is one of the initiatives launched to counteract problems with the supply of protective equipment, nationally and internationally. In Denmark, the Danish Health Authority and the SSI (Statens Seruminstitut) send out information regularly to remind the healthcare services to use protective equipment rationally in light of the present situation.

The Danish Medicines Agency has started a collaboration with the Medicoindustrien, the Confederation of Danish Industry and the Danish Chamber of Commerce to switch the production lines of Danish companies to protective equipment.

Read more about this and other initiatives in the Danish Medicines Agency COVID-19 theme.