The coronavirus causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
If parliament agrees, the mink carcasses will be dug up and burned in six months’ time once the risk of infection is completely passed, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.
“This way, we avoid the mink being treated as dangerous biological waste, a solution that’s never been used before,” the ministry said.
Denmark dug two mass graves in November on military sites near Holstebro and Karup in the country’s west.
However, under fire for its management of the “mink crisis”, the government was forced to admit that the pits were an environmental risk to the water table and nearby lakes.
The ministry said that the danger of pollution was not urgent, and that “the environment authority is following the situation closely,” allowing the delay in digging up the minks until May.
Denmark, the world’s top mink fur exporter, said in November that it would cull its entire stock of 15mn minks because of a mutant coronavirus strain that could threaten the effectiveness of upcoming human vaccines.
Copenhagen said on November 19 that the “Cluster 5” mutation had been wiped out, and so far mink are the only animal confirmed to be capable both of contracting the strain and of passing it to humans.
But the government’s decision became a political crisis when it turned out it had no legal basis for the cull.
The agriculture minister resigned and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen apologised in tears.
Now a bill that would ban mink husbandry until 2022 is set to become law today.
Kazakhstan has meanwhile banned corporate parties and sporting events over the New Year holidays and tightened quarantine measures at a key oil field in a bid to contain the coronavirus, the government said yesterday.
The new restrictions on the holding of mass gatherings and sports events will enter force on December 25 and last until January 5, said a statement released by the office of the prime minister.
Authorities said that tougher measures at the Tengiz oil field where hundreds of employees have contracted the virus will continue “until the epidemiological situation stabilises”.
The government also said that it would introduce price controls to make medicines used to treat the virus 24% cheaper on average, the statement said.
Year-end company parties are an important source of income for the Kazakh hospitality sector, which has taken a battering over the course of a year that has included two coronavirus lockdowns.
Kazakhstan’s chief sanitary doctor warned in May that the Tengiz oil field where US oil giant Chevron has a 50% stake could face closure over rising cases.