Danish Covid mink variant 'very likely extinct', but controversial cull continues

Farmers must still destroy animals before midnight, despite health ministry saying variant has not been found since September

The Covid-19 mink variant that led to a cull of all mink in Denmark and the resignation of the country's agriculture minister on Wednesday, is very likely extinct", said Denmark's health ministry.

The cull was sparked by research from one of Denmark's public health bodies, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), which showed that a mink variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus called C5 was harder for antibodies to neutralise and posed a potential threat to vaccine efficacy.