The mutated coronavirus strain, which stemmed from mink farms, is “most likely” extinct days after the government ordered the nation’s 17 million minks to be killed, Denmark’s health ministry said.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced Nov. 4 that all of the nation’s minks would need to be killed. Less than a week later, the order was halted. Frederiksen said the government did not have the authority to carry it out.
Nearly 2.85 million minks had already been killed, the BBC reported.
“No further cases of mink variant with cluster 5 have been detected since Sept. 15, which is why the State Serum Institute assesses that this variant has most likely become extinct,” the Danish health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Agriculture Minister Mogens Jensen resigned on Wednesday over the matter, writing in a statement, “I no longer have the sufficient support among a majority of the parliamentary parties.”
The prime minister has also been called upon to resign.
“They can’t just pull the plug and let me deal with the consequences,” one mink farmer told Reuters. “I won’t be able to start over; everything is ruined.”
Mink farmers in Ireland have also been told that they will need to kill their herds.
