Monday Morning News & Notes
The Nordics brace for a flood of Ukrainian refugees. Denmark’s pandemic picture improves
🇺🇦/ 🇷🇺 War
🇪🇺/ 🇷🇺🇺🇦
The European Union Council at its Versailles summit once again condemned Russia’s “gross violation of international law” in its “unjustified” invasion of Ukraine. EU leaders said the invasion undermined European and global security while “inflicting unspeakable suffering on the Ukrainian population.” The council in a statement said that Russia “and its accomplice Belarus” bear full responsibility for the war and both will be held to account for potential war crimes.
“In this respect we welcome the decision of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation.”
The EU once again is calling for Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukraine and respect its international borders and sovereignty.
“We are determined to increase even further our pressure on Russia and Belarus. We have adopted significant sanctions and remain ready to move quickly with further sanctions.”
The EU Council also pledged to provide temporary protection to Ukrainian refugees, wane supply humanitarian, medical aid, and financial support for all refugees who need them. It also committed to financially supporting Ukraine when it rebuilds after the war.
EU leaders also advanced Ukraine’s application to join the European Union, a process that will likely take years.
“We will further strengthen our bonds and deepen our partnership to support Ukraine in pursuing its European path. Ukraine belongs to our European family.”
Both Moldova and Georgia also have applications to join the European Union and both are before the Commission for consideration.
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The European Union will levy a fourth round of sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Among the new layer of sanctions the EU will, like Canada and the USA, revoke Russia’s trade status as ‘most-favoured-nation’ this will mean increased tariffs on all Russian trade.
The EU is also pledging to lobby to remove Russia’s membership in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It says this will kneecap Russia’s ability to get financing or loans.
“Because Russia cannot grossly violate international law and, at the same time, expect to benefit from the privileges of being part of the international economic order.”
A special EU task force will also meet this week to look at more sanctions on Russian elites who are close to Putin, their families, and enablers.
The EU will ensure that the Russian state and its elite cannot use cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions.
The EU will stop the export of luxury goods to Russia, prevent imports of key products for the iron and steel sectors, and impose a major ban on any new European investment in the Russian energy sector.
“Those who sustain Putin's war machine should no longer be able to enjoy their lavish lifestyle while bombs fall on innocent people in Ukraine.”
The announcement comes after the EU's Heads of State and Government gathered last week for its extraordinary summit in Versailles, France.
🇩🇰/ 🇪🇪
On Friday, another 200 Danish soldiers departed for Estonia, where they will add to NATO forces shoring up defensive fortifications along the Russian border with the Baltic countries. The soldiers will serve in their NATO battalion for a six month deployment before being relieved by another group rotating in.
Last week, military supplies and equipment were also ferried from Denmark to Estonia.
🇩🇰/ 🇷🇺
Should Danish ports be open to Russian vessels? The Director of the Port of Odense says no. Carsten Aa, who is also the Chair of Danish Ports, says maritime rules dictating that all ships can berth if they need to should no longer apply to Russian vessels due to the invasion of Ukraine.
“The situation is catastrophic for Ukrainians, and if this is a small thing we can do that can help send a strong message.”
He emphasizes that it will not be enough if Denmark stands alone in closing its ports to Russian ships, which is why he would like to see it be a joint EU decision. The United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries have already closed their ports to all Russian ships.
🇩🇰/ 🇺🇦
The Danish government has created a website as a resource for news and information on the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and related Danish initiatives. The website is in both Danish and English.
You can find it HERE.
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Denmark’s Foreign Affairs Ministry says while a number of Danes in Ukraine have managed to leave the country, there are still about 50 people left on the ministry’s ‘Danish list.’ There were about 100 Danish citizens and permanent residents who had registered as being in Ukraine prior to Russia’s invasion.
At a press conference on Friday Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Erik Brøgger Rasmussen says there could be more Danes in Ukraine who are not registered.
“There are fewer and fewer Danes in Ukraine. A large group wanted to stay there, but even that group, we can now see, is getting smaller and smaller.”
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Denmark is bracing for the arrival of a significant number of Ukrainian refugees. The Danish Immigration Service says thousands have already arrived.
Director Niels Henrik Larsen:
“The other day, 4,000 to 6,000 Ukrainians have been registered as immigrants, but we only have random checks at the border, so the number could easily be higher.”
Larsen added the flow of Ukrainians fleeing the horrors Russia is inflicting on their country is increasing each day.
“I would like to thank the people who have opened their homes [to Ukrainian refugees]. It may be safer to visit someone you know than to enter the asylum system.”
The Danish Red Cross is opening a center for Ukrainians seeking asylum at Holmegaard, just outside Bagenkop in southern Langeland. The Red Cross says the facility can house 200 people, with the first refugees likely already having arrived this past weekend.
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Tents, heaters, and camping gear are headed from Denmark to Moldova to help the country manage a flood of Ukrainian refugees. The Danish Emergency Management Agency is donating the equipment, which also includes at least 10 generators and associated cables and electrical equipment along with a mobile hospital, according to a report from DR. There will be 36 tents in all, which should help house 320 people.
🇩🇰/ 🇸🇪
Over the weekend, Swedish and Danish fighter jets were training together and patrolling the airspace of both countries. This is another solidifying of military cooperation among the Nordic countries in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
From Denmark’s Armed Forces:
“The security situation in Europe has changed with the war in Ukraine, which is why it is extra important that we train with our NATO allies and partner countries. The joint flights took place with Danish F16 fighter jets and Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets over both Sweden and Denmark.”
🇸🇪
With almost three-million people having fled war-torn Ukraine and in all likelihood many more to come, Sweden is bracing for a flood of Ukrainian refugees. The Swedish Migration Agency had estimated it might see 76,000 refugees arriving in the first half of this year, but it is now revising that estimate to 212,000.
Director General Mikael Ribbenvik spoke to SVT:
“Considering the development in Ukraine now that everything is going in the wrong direction, it is the worst case scenario that is now most likely.”
Among the 212,000 refugees the agency is anticipating, between 1,400 to 6,000 unaccompanied children will be included.
Sweden has so far registered 5,200 Ukrainian refugees, but the expectation is there are many more that have yet to officially report their arrival.
“But there are significantly more people coming to Sweden than can be seen in the statistics.”
The migration agency says 4,000 Ukrainian refugees are arriving every day and if they hit or exceed the 212,000 it will be far more refugees arriving in Sweden than during the Syrian crisis of 2015.
The agency is sounding a warning that housing for these refugees is a major challenge and everyone is going to have to work together to solve a problem than could get even worse should the war drag on.
🇫🇮/ 🇷🇺
The President of Finland spent about an hour on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday but judging by the ferocious bombing in Ukraine over the weekend, he wasn’t able to accomplish much. According to an official read-out from President Sauli Niinistö’s office, the conversation was entirely focused on the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the worsening catastrophe, and humanitarian crisis in the country.
President Niinistö apparently pushed Putin on establishing an immediate ceasefire to ensure evacuation of civilians and humanitarian assistance. He also tried to draw attention to the safety and security of nuclear energy facilities in Ukraine. The president’s office says he also urged Putin to meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky.
WHO/ 🇺🇦
The World Health Organization says it has advised Ukraine to destroy pathogens stored in public health laboratories in the path of Russian advances. The WHO says it has concerns about “high threat” pathogens, including COVID, escaping due to the war and to prevent that they should be proactively destroyed. Ukraine has health laboratories researching how to mitigate the threats of dangerous diseases facing both humans and animals.
🦠Pandemic🦠
🇩🇰
In Denmark, COVID hospitalizations (1,464) bounced around over the weekend, ending with an increase on Sunday (+64) but still ended up being a net negative with fewer total hospitalizations than were reported on Thursday. The number of severe cases in an ICU (25) was down (-3) and of those the number on a ventilator (7) also inched down (-1). COVID admissions to a psychiatric ward (373) increased (+17).
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As overall hospitalization pressure eases the number of COVID admissions for young people and children under the age of 19 has dropped dramatically. Over the last seven days there were 60 infants hospitalized, which is less than half of what it was just two weeks ago.
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Denmark suffered another 126 coronavirus deaths and 27,575 more COVID infections (underreported) over the weekend. It reported 27 corona deaths on Friday, followed by 52 on Saturday, and another 47 on Sunday. These would be fatalities measured as deaths within four weeks of a positive test.
The Danish Statens Serum Institut is also reviewing death certificates to differentiate between deaths directly because of a COVID infection and those who died with an infection but the actual cause of death was due to a non-pandemic reason. It updates those numbers every Thursday.
There were just 30,333 total COVID tests done on Saturday as testing numbers continue to diminish, making case counts less and less reliable. Of those, 29,591 were PCR tests equaling a positivity percentage of 22.50%.
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On the vaccination front, numbers remained more or less static, with 1,020 booster doses administered on Saturday.
To date, 82.4% of the total population have one dose, 80.9% have two doses, and 61.3% have a booster dose.
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As of today, mask use is no longer required in airports in Denmark. Billund airport ended the mask mandate late last week and as of today, Aalborg airport and Denmark’s biggest air hub Copenhagen airport, have also both lifted the mask requirement. Mask use has been mandated in Danish airports and other air hubs across Europe since the summer of 2020.
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The COVID pandemic has pushed more and more people in Denmark to embrace digital services. Booking a corona test, getting a result, online classes, or buying groceries online, and many other online services have all prompted huge numbers of people to embrace the internet. In a new report, Statistics Denmark says virtually everyone between the ages of 16 and 74 has now been online for one reason or another. To look at it another way, the agency says just 1% of people in Denmark in that age range have never used the internet. In 2010, that number was 10%.
Dansk Erhev (Danish Chamber of Commerce) Marketing Director Anders Thomsen spoke to DR:
“We can see that the pandemic has caused Danes, who did not go online to such an extent before, to have now embraced it.”
🇸🇪
Sweden will table its first COVID update of the week on Tuesday.
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This is ‘National Vaccination Week’ in Sweden. Efforts will be made all week to try and reach the roughly one-million people 18 years and older in Sweden who have yet to be vaccinated.
In Region Skåne, a mobile vaccination clinic will be making the rounds helping people get vaccinated, even if they don’t have a Swedish social security number.
Skåne University Hospital Manager Monica Arvidsson Ahlqvist says the mobile clinic allows them to directly target areas where vaccination rates are the lowest.
“It should be easy to get vaccinated. Finding a vaccination unit on the internet, looking for free time and identifying yourself with BankID is not easy for everyone. If you do not have a Swedish social security number, it is impossible. When the bus arrives in our target area we help with registration even if you do not have a Swedish social security number. Then it becomes easy and you can get vaccinated. If you want to increase the vaccination rate further, you have to make it easy.”
Ahlqvist says since Sweden returned to near-normal and lifted all of the COVID measures, vaccination uptake has taken a nosedive.
“That's actually quite logical. When the restrictions were removed and people could return to work, go to football, a restaurant, or a cinema without a [vaccine] certificate, the interest in getting vaccinated declined. The fact that Omicron is now dominant and usually results in fairly mild symptoms probably also plays a role.”
The region is urging people who haven’t been vaccinated to get their shots, and for those with two shots, but not a third, they should get a booster dose. It stresses being vaccinated, protects against severe infection, hospitalization, and death.
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The COVID hospitalization picture continues to improve in Sweden’s capital region. There were 322 pandemic hospitalizations, according to Region Stockholm’s last update on Friday afternoon. That is 21 fewer than there was on the same day last week and a sharp decrease from the over 600 at the beginning of February. 12 of those are being treated in intensive care.
Chief Physician Elda Sparrelid:
“It is obviously positive. However, we wish that the number of COVID patients would fall even faster. Now all emergency hospitals report that they have ended emergency operations and have returned to normal as they begin to tackle backlogged procedures that have built up due to pandemic delays.”
However, while the healthcare picture has improved the region emphasizes the pandemic is not over yet and hospitals are still taking precautions. This could mean special infection control measures may remain in place including the requirement to wear a mask inside a hospital.
There were 1,615 confirmed infections in Region Stockholm over the last week. As Sweden has restricted COVID tests for use by the general public, that number is likely wildly underreported. It also recorded 20 more pandemic deaths in the last week.
🇳🇴
In Norway COVID hospitalizations (611) were up (+11) while the number of severe infections in an ICU (55) also inched upward (+3) and of those the number on a ventilator (23) crept up as well (+2).
Norge reported no new coronavirus deaths over the weekend while adding another 18,090 infections (underreported).
To date, 80.3% of Norwegians 12 years old and older have one vaccine dose, 74.6% have two, and 53.7% have a booster dose.
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Influenza cases have begun to rise in Norway after stagnating since Christmas, according to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. It says seasonal flu prevalence among those tested was 0.9% last week, an increase of 0.5%.
The agency says respiratory infections other than coronavirus have been at very low levels in recent weeks. Outside of COVID and influenza, other respiratory infections accounted for 1% of all tests. Most active outside of the pandemic was rhinovirus, but the NIPH also noted increasing numbers of metapneumovirus cases. Metapneumovirus is a seasonal respiratory infection, not unlike the RS virus or seasonal flu.
The number of hospitalizations due to respiratory infections has increased, but mainly because of the COVID pandemic, according to the NIPH. Coronavirus cases accounted for 71% of all hospital admissions due to a respiratory infection in week 8. While respiratory infections made up 23% of admissions, upper respiratory infections 5%, and influenza 1%.
🇩🇪
Germany’s Health Minister Professor Karl Lauterbach is waving a warning flag. He says Germany now has the highest COVID incidence rate in Europe. He is urging anyone who has not yet been vaccinated to get their shots. ASAP.
“Those who have been vaccinated are now often careless. They know that they can become infected, but usually do not become seriously ill. The unvaccinated are now defenseless.”
In a concerning development, Germany is actually starting to see its infection curve heading back upward again, with COVID cases rising by just over 20% over a one-week span.
🇪🇺🦠
The Omicron-driven infection wave continues to ease in Europe, according to the latest weekly assessment from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. But the latest COVID snapshot isn’t all good news.
The COVID incidence rate per 100,000 people in Europe dropped to 1,417 in the first week of March, a fifth straight week of declining numbers. But the ECDC notes five European countries continue to see increasing infection numbers. The agency says another concerning sign is that COVID cases are increasing among seniors 65 years old and older in seven EU nations. It warns increasing infection numbers among a more vulnerable population of seniors will likely mean more severe cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
The 14-day COVID death rate was 41 deaths per million population, a drop from 51.6 the previous two week span. This marks a second two-week span in which numbers have declined. But again, at the country level, death rates are trending upward in ten European nations and are forecast to continue doing so for at least the next two weeks.
Of the 29 countries that report hospitalization and or intensive care data to the ECDC, four reported increasing numbers in one or both categories.
Looking at the individual European countries, just one nation (Liechtenstein) is considered to be a very high COVID concern. 14 countries including Austria, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Slovakia, are seen as high concerns. While 15 countries including Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Spain, and Sweden, are considered moderately concerning.
On the vaccination front, by the end of week 9, 72% of Europe’s total population had two vaccine doses while 51.7% had a booster shot.
The Omicron variant is the absolute king in Europe, accounting for 99.7% of all sequenced positive test results in the last week of February. The Delta variant only came back in a mere 0.2% of cases.
🇪🇺💉
The European Medicines Agency is reporting another possible rare side effect from being vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine. Europe’s pharmaceutical watchdog says it has 21 reports of small vessel vasculitis happening after Johnson & Johnson vaccinations. Of those, the agency determined, ten cases were very likely linked to the vaccine. Vasculitis is inflammation of the blood vessels resulting in a rash, red spots under the skin’s surface, and bruising. The EMA has ordered the side effect to be added to the vaccines product information.
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The EMA has also recommended the Moderna vaccine’s product information be updated to include a warning about flare-ups of capillary leak syndrome. The agency says CLS is an extremely rare but potentially serious condition where small blood vessels leak fluid causing rapid swelling of the arms and legs, sudden weight gain, low blood pressure, and a feeling of being faint. The EMA has 55 cases of CLS reported, with 44 of them coming after being vaccinated with a Moderna dose. For context, over 550 million doses of the Moderna vaccine have been administered to date.
🦠🌏
Pfizer is beginning clinical trials to study the effectiveness of its COVID antiviral pill, Paxlovid, on young children. The pill is currently authorized in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere to be used as a COVID treatment for people 18 years old and older who are at risk of a severe coronavirus infection.
The new clinical trial will enroll 140 children in an age range from six to 17 years old.
Chief Scientific Officer and President of Worldwide Research Mikael Dolsten:
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 11 million children under the age of 18 in the United States alone have tested positive for COVID, representing nearly 18% of reported cases and leading to more than 100,000 hospital admissions. There is a significant unmet need for outpatient treatments that can be taken by children and adolescents to help prevent progression to severe illness, including hospitalization or death.”
Children under age 6 will not be included in this study, but Pfizer said research is ongoing to determine the best dose for the youngest of children
Pfizer's pill was hailed as a game-changer because it was the first COVID treatment that did not require an infusion, making it more convenient to give to patients.
Clinical trial data among adults has shown the antiviral pill reduced the risk of hospitalization and death among COVID patients by 89% if administered within three days of the onset of symptoms.
🦠🌏
The global pandemic death toll may be three times what is currently being reported according to a study published in The Lancet. The study estimates the coronavirus may have claimed as many as 18.2 million lives around the globe. The current publicly reported number of COVID deaths is just over six-million.
To get around the wide variations in how each country publicly reports COVID fatalities, the study compared excess mortality of each country during the two years of the pandemic with the 11 years preceding the arrival of the coronavirus. Excess mortality measures the number of deaths above an average of previous years. Countries like India, the USA, Russia, and Mexico had by far the highest excess mortality, but a handful of countries actually registered lower than normal mortality during the pandemic. Those countries included Iceland, Australia, Singapore, and Norway.
This latest study falls roughly in line with some others on the same topic as well as a major investigation by the Financial Times, which also used excess mortality, and ended up with a very similar final number of total COVID deaths.
🇨🇦
The number of COVID infections in Canada decreased over the last week even as a lack of testing makes infection numbers much more unreliable. The Public Health Agency of Canada reported 5,583 infections last week, a decline of 3.7%. The positivity percentage for the same week was 13% “indicating there is still widespread activity across the country.”
Last week, PHAC says there were an average of 4,500 people with a coronavirus infection being treated in hospital each day. That is a 13% drop from the week before. Intensive care numbers were also down by 12% week to week. An average of 51 lives were lost each day last week.
On the vaccination front, the health agency says over 81% of total populations are now fully vaccinated. Among those 12 years old and older, 88% have at least one dose and 84% are fully vaccinated. For children five to 11 years old 57% have at least one vaccine dose. PHAC says over 5.3 million people in Canada need one or more shots to have both doses while “many others” are eligible for a booster shot but have not yet received one. So far, over 82% of seniors 70 years old and older have been boosted.