Monday Morning News and Notes
More post AstraZeneca vaccination cases of severe blood clotting.
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The Danish Medicines Agency is now investigating at least 12 cases of severe blood clotting after AstraZeneca vaccinations. The two newest cases, both hospital employees, were reported in Copenhagen over the weekend and one of them has died, marking the second fatality in the post-vaccination blood clotting mystery. Both had received an AstraZeneca vaccination within the last ten days. So far a causal link to the vaccine has not been established.
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Yesterday, the Norwegian Medicines Agency (Legemiddelverket) reported two more deaths among five people who were admitted last week with severe blood clotting, hemorrhages, and low platelet count after receiving AstraZeneca vaccinations. A third died earlier in the week.
In a release, the agency says it “cannot rule out that these cases may be related to the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
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A poll out this morning from the British polling firm YouGov has found that confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine is taking a beating in Europe. The poll finds that majority of people in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy perceive the vaccine as unsafe.
In Denmark it is an even split, with half of those polled believing AstraZeneca is safe and the other half saying it isn’t.
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Data from a U.S. study on the AstraZeneca vaccine found it was 79% effective in combating COVID. Of the 30,000 volunteers in the study, two thirds received the vaccine, and the remainder received a placebo. The findings will be submitted as part of the vaccine maker’s application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as it seeks to get approval for use in the United States.
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Denmark added 1,247 infections over the weekend and three more corona deaths. 590 infections and two fatalities were reported on Saturday and another 657 infections and one death on Sunday. This marks a second straight weekend with increased COVID numbers up from 1,154 last weekend, and 907 the weekend before.
Infection numbers in Denmark continue to trend upward.
While the outbreak situation in Esbjerg has eased, hot spots are spreading through the municipalities of Brøndby, Høj-Taastrup, Ballerup, and Vallensbæk in suburban Copenhagen. Ishøj remains a red zone as it continues to struggle with high infection rates.
On the COVID vaccination front, 10,849 1st dose inoculations and 17,247 2nd dose shots were administered over Saturday and Sunday.
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Norway is dipping into an emergency reserve of Moderna vaccine to get more vulnerable healthcare workers vaccinated. The extra 24,000 doses will come from a reserve stockpile that was initially targeted for future 2nd doses. The Norwegian Health Institute now feels the Moderna supply chain is secure enough they can dip into emergency reserves. The doses will be split between this week and next and will be targeted at vaccinating health care workers over 65 years of age and who have underlying risk conditions.
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Finland is seeing more ICU deaths in this COVID wave than it did when the pandemic struck last spring. One reasons is that more older people are showing up in intensive care units. The number of ICU patients aged 60 to 79 years old has risen by more than 10%.
The Helsingin Sanimat daily in Finland reported over the weekend that the government plans to introduce legislation this week mandating mask use and restricting movement. The paper reports the measures would target the country’s most populous areas, Helsinki and Turku.
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Yesterday, Germany reported 11,149 new infections and 74 more corona deaths as its COVID numbers trend upward.
Germany may have to abandon lifting COVID restrictions and go back into a National lockdown. Several of its biggest cities, including Hamburg and Cologne, already have as of last Friday. Germany has crossed the benchmark meant to trigger an emergency brake lockdown - 100 new infections for every 100,000 residents. German media are already reporting Chancellor Angela Merkel is working to extend restrictions into April.
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COVID infections are also steadily increasing in France as it recorded another 30,581 new infections and 138 more virus deaths yesterday.
As of midnight on Friday, 16 French regions were put under a partial lockdown including the capital, Paris.
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A three week lockdown began in Poland on Saturday as it battles a U.K. variant fueled COVID wave driving infections to heights not seen in the country since November.
Yesterday, it reported 21,849 new infections and another 140 corona deaths as its numbers shot upward.
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Hungary remains a European coronavirus hot spot as it sees the highest infection numbers the country has ever seen.
Yesterday, it added another 10,625 new infections while losing 194 more lives.
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The European Union will not be contributing vaccine doses to poorer countries until its own vaccine supply chain issues are addressed, according to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. While she says Europe is in not in a place to contribute vaccine doses, she says it will continue to throw financial support to the COVAX effort, a World Health Organization initiative to improve access to vaccines for poorer countries
The E.U. is scrambling to try and bolster an underwhelming vaccination campaign as a number of member nations break with the bloc, and the guidelines of its drug watchdog, to secure their own vaccine supplies.
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The United Kingdom set a vaccination record on Saturday inoculating a stunning 873,784 people.
British health Service head Simon Stevens told The Guardian that equates to 27 vaccinations every second.
“In just one day, we have vaccinated the equivalent of the adult populations of Liverpool, Southampton and Oxford together.”
To date, the U.K. has administered 27,630,970 1st dose vaccinations. 2,228,772 people are now fully vaccinated.
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It was not a good weekend in Ontario as it added 1,791 new infections Sunday and 1,829 infections on Saturday. Over the weekend, the counties of Brant, Chatham-Kent, Grenville and Lanark, and Leeds were all moved into the provinces ‘red zone’ sparking a lockdown effective today.
Ontario is seeing an infection surge fueled by COVID variants, primarily the more contagious U.K. variant. Yesterday Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam warned the country was in a “crucial moment.”
“In parts of Canada, variants of concern represent an increasingly high proportion of cases and are being associated with a greater number of outbreaks.”
Variants are also spreading very fast in the western provinces.
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India is scrambling to increase vaccinations and, in Mumbai, it is introducing mandatory COVID testing in the city’s most crowded areas as it sees infections increase surge.
Yesterday it added 47,009 new infections, the highest daily infection numbers since November 11th. Fatalities are also on the rise, with 213 deaths yesterday.