Monday Morning News & Notes
Denmark concerned about lagging vaccination rates among some young people
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When Denmark removes the ‘socially critical disease’ designation for COVID19 on September 10, wiping away almost all remaining restrictions. Travel restrictions are not included and will remain in place.
After a week pause due to evacuation efforts in Afghanistan, Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has once again adjusted its COVID risk assessment map. Of note for us here in Denmark, both Sweden and Germany have moved to be-cautious yellow. However, the border regions of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany and southern and western Sweden all remain near-normal green. This means people can travel back and forth from Denmark to those border regions without having to have a negative test to return. Keep in mind Sweden and Germany may have their own entry restrictions.
Nordic neighbour Norway still has significant entry restrictions on travelers from Denmark, so it remains medium-risk orange. However, the Norwegian regions of Møre og Romsdal, Oslo, Rogaland, Vestfold and Telemark, Vestland, and Viken have all been moved from green to yellow. This means most travel to Norway will require a negative COVID test to return to Denmark.
People who are fully vaccinated and children 16 and under traveling with a fully vaccinated person are exempt from the testing requirement.
Other changes:
Within the EU - Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Sweden, Germany, and Austria are now coloured, be-cautious, yellow.
In Austria, the regions of Burgenland, Carinthia, and Lower Austria are all near-normal green.
In Italy, the regions of Liguria and Campania are both yellow. Also yellow are the Wallis, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Appenzell Innerrhoden, and Uri regions of Switzerland.
As of this writing, Canada remains ‘yellow.’
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There is a concerning development in some Danish nursing homes. In week 33 there were 18 cases of COVID among fully vaccinated people in nursing homes. This month, according to data from the Staten Serum Institut, there were also five coronavirus-related deaths in seniors facilities as well. Berlingske is reporting that nursing home employees returning from vacation accounted for a third of all infections cases in the social and healthcare sector in week 32. Health officials are now taking a look at the situation to see what can be done.
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Vaccination numbers continue to dwindle in Denmark and with 2nd doses administered having almost caught up to 1st doses, numbers will further erode. To date, 75.1% of the total population has had one vaccine dose and 71% is fully vaccinated.
On Saturday, a total of 12,760 inoculations were administered, and of those, just 2,721 were first doses.
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Denmark’s National Board of Health has looked at the latest data and is growing more concerned about lagging vaccination rates among some young people. Specifically, just seven out of ten people aged 20 to 34 years old have had a first dose. And the health board says in the last two weeks the number of vaccinations in that age group has slowed even further.
To compare, up until August 23, data from the National Health Board shows that nine out of every ten people aged 40 years old and older has either had one dose or is fully vaccinated.
Deputy Director Helene Bilsted Probst:
"There needs to be a strong call to action for younger people to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Many young people may be of the opinion that they are not affected by COVID, but that is wrong. Young people are also seriously at risk, they can become seriously ill and they can suffer from long-COVID. And then it is also important to point out that getting sick can mean isolation, and goodbye to parties, a social life, and work. Finally, most people also want to avoid infecting their friends and family.”
At the moment, Danish health authorities are reconfiguring the vaccination effort to be more mobile and much easier to access.
“There can be various barriers that mean that you have not yet found the time and opportunity to be vaccinated. Therefore, we try with as many different tools as possible to meet people halfway, and make it easier to make the decision to get vaccinated.”
The campaign to get people inoculated against COVID has taken on a new urgency as the ‘seasonal effect’ begins to shift to work against us.
“We know from both last year with the pandemic and from other diseases, that the autumn season is a difficult time, where the risk of spreading infection increases.”
Denmark is working to get nine out of every ten people, 12 years old and older vaccinated by October 1. To achieve that goal, it means getting about a quarter million hold-outs, most of them in younger age groups, started on the vaccination process as soon as possible.
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Vaccination efforts across Denmark continue to directly target young people and neighbourhoods where vaccination numbers are trailing behind. The Director of the National Health Board Søren Brostrøm has been busy out in some of the communities with lagging stats to answer questions, enlist community members in the inoculation effort, and even vaccinate people himself. Over the last few days he has been at pop-up vaccination sites in Vollsmose Parish in Odense and several mosques in Metro Copenhagen.
Brostrøm describes the vaccination effort now as the “final sprint.”
The National Health Board is pulling out the stops to reach the last vaccination hold-outs. These efforts include making all vaccination clinics appointment-free, meaning anyone can get their shot just by walking in. It is also blanketing neighbourhoods with low inoculations rates with text messages, utilizing social media, and bringing community and spiritual leaders on board to help the vaccination drive.
“It is important that we cooperate with local forces. Familiar, local faces play a crucial role when it comes to talking to citizens who may be in doubt or have concerns because they have been inundated with some of the misinformation that we unfortunately know circulates in some circles.”
Below is a list of areas where vaccination numbers are lagging and where pop-up vaccination sites will be deployed too.
Copenhagen: Blågårdens parish, Sankt Stefan parish, Kingos parish, Aldersro parish, Solvang parish, Sundby parish, Valby Søndre parish, Bellahøj parish and Sydhavn parish
Brøndby: Nygårds Parish and Brøndby Strand Parish
Aarhus: Gellerup Parish and Ravnsbjerg Parish
Kolding: Simon Peter Sogn
Høje Taastrup: Høje-Taastrup parish, Taastrup Nykirke parish and Hedehusene parish
Ishøj: Torslunde parish
Albertslund: Parish of the Resurrection Church and Herstedvester Parish
Gladsaxe: Harald parish, Mørkhøj parish and Bagsværd parish
Odense: Vollsmose parish
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Denmark has added 2,539 COVID infections and seven more coronavirus deaths since its Thursday update. It reported 925 infections on Friday, 877 on Saturday, and then another 737 on Sunday.
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COVID hospitalizations (129) have crept back up (+5) while the number of infected people in an ICU (19) is unchanged, and of those, the number on a ventilator (12) inched upward (+1).
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As more and more people in Denmark are vaccinated and restrictions are lifted, the demand for COVID testing continues to fall. The Danish Agency for Security of Supply says it will close all rapid testing sites across the country by October 9, and scale back overall testing capacity.
The agency says as of September 13, the daily rapid test capacity will be cut in half, from 200,000 to 100,000. On September 1, PCR testing will also be scaled back from 170,000 tests per day to 100,000. This will mean that for some they will have to go farther to get tested as the testing infrastructure contracts.
Agency Director Lisbet Zilmer-Johns:
"It is really positive that we can now ramp down the test capacity. This is because many people are now vaccinated. In the future, there will be fewer test sites, but there will still be test options in all municipalities. At the same time, this means that the many employees at testing sites, who have done a fantastic job of keeping the infection under control, can now move on to other jobs. We continuously monitor the situation in close cooperation with the regions, and we will be able to quickly increase capacity so that we can test more if needed.”
Any remaining rapid testing kits will be added to the inventory of some PCR testing facilities, which as of October, will be able to offer both testing options.
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As of September 1, the Danish Health Ministry will remove the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from the optional vaccination scheme where it was being offered for free. The ministry says the doses will then be distributed to private clinics and offered for a price to people who haven’t had access to a vaccination program. As an example, it uses seamen who often spend months on freighters far from home and Danes who live abroad who are struggling to get vaccinated in their country of residence.
The J&J doses will be administered in a similar way travel vaccination clinics currently offer shots.
Per the release:
“The scheme stipulates that all persons in Denmark, regardless of nationality, including persons in transit or a very short stay in Denmark, must be able to buy a treatment in Denmark with a COVID vaccine at their own expense upon medical prescription. The vaccination itself will have to be done under the responsibility of a doctor, but may be delegated to an assistant in accordance with current rules for delegation.”
Applicable entry restrictions will apply to anyone traveling to Denmark to get a Johnson & Johnson shot.
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Japan has suspended use of the Moderna vaccine after some kind of contamination has been discovered in vaccine vials. Two men have died after being vaccinated with Moderna, but authorities are emphasizing at this point there is no conclusive link to the vaccine. The batches Japan uses are manufactured by a pharmaceutical company in Spain.
An investigation has been launched, with first results expected to arrive early this week.
Hanna Lomholt Larsen, Clinical Assessment Unit Head at the Danish Medicines Agency, says Denmark’s Moderna doses are not impacted.
“Based on a precautionary principle, Japan has chosen to suspend 1.6 million. Modern vaccines due to suspicion of impurities as a result of a production problem at a factory in Spain. Denmark's Moderna vaccines are not affected.”
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As of this morning both Canada and Denmark have moved to the United Kingdom’s ‘green list’ for international travel. This means travelers are free to visit the UK but they have to have a negative COVID test no more than 72 hours old, must book and pay (prior to traveling) for a COVID test to be taken on the second day after arrival, travelers must also fill out a ‘passenger locator form.’
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Sweden’s capital region is now focusing vaccination efforts on young people in areas with lower vaccination rates. As of today, special vaccination buses will at certain upper secondary schools in Upplands-Bro and Södertälje.
Region Stockholm Vaccination Coordinator Magnus Thyberg:
“There are major differences in vaccination coverage between different areas in Stockholm and we want to use the [vaccination] buses, which will have drop-in times, to lower the thresholds for young people who want to get vaccinated by offering inoculations during school hours.”
So far in the region, 48% of 16 to 17 year olds have had one vaccine dose. As for the adult population 18 years old and older, the vaccination rate is over 80% coverage with one dose. And the region says it is administering between 110,000 to 120,000 vaccine doses each week.
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Sweden took just two weeks to reach its goal of donating three-million vaccine doses to the international COVAX program, which focuses on getting badly-needed vaccines to developing countries. Sweden’s Vaccine Coordinator Richard Bergström told Dagens Nyheter that there are discussions about setting a new, higher goal.
“The question is how much and what the mix of vaccine manufacturers should look like.”
Sweden has been donating its AstraZeneca doses to the COVAX initiative after removing the vaccine from its national program.
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Sweden’s Ministry of Social Affairs wants a better handle on the impacts of long-COVID and how people who are suffering from it are being treated. There are a wide array of regional differences in how long-COVID patients are treated in Sweden, with one region having special treatment centers and another having none. It is that scatter-shot approach that the Swedish Agency for Care Analysis wants addressed.
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Since Thursday’s update Norway has added 3,897 coronavirus cases and had no new deaths.
COVID hospitalizations (60) have gone down (-5) while the number of infected people in an ICU (16) has edged upward (+1) and of those the number on a ventilator (10) has also risen slightly (+2).
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Finland has added 1,808 corona infections since its Thursday update.
So far, 4,013,569 people (71.8% of the population) have had a first vaccine dose and 2,763,462 (49.5%) have had both doses.
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A follow-up study from the Finnish Institute for Health has found that the risk of death after one vaccine dose is much lower than for an unvaccinated person. The agency studied mortality rates among 3.9-million people three weeks after a first vaccine dose and compared it to the rest of the population who were unvaccinated.
Specialist Researcher Petteri Hovi says they found a very big difference between groups with one vaccine dose and those with none.
“When comparing groups with similar backgrounds and sizes, with an average of 100 deaths in a non-vaccinated group over a period of time, an average of 43 people would die in the corresponding vaccinated group. Taking into account the background factors, the risk of death for vaccinated people during the three weeks after vaccination in all age groups was less than half the risk for non-vaccinated people.”
It is important to note that on any given day an average of about 150 people die each day in Finland. The study notes “death after vaccination does not mean that there is a causal link between vaccination and death.”
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In Italy, the region of Sicily has become a COVID ‘yellow zone’ based on the Italian tiered coronavirus risk designation system. The region moved from white to yellow due to rapidly rising infection numbers and increasing numbers of hospitalizations. The yellow designation triggers some restrictions, including a cap on the number of people allowed to sit together inside a restaurant.
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COVID woes continue down under. Australia is struggling with an outbreak driven by the much more infectious Delta variant that has pushed daily coronavirus infections to record highs and triggered hard lockdowns in several areas of the country. Those lockdowns are showing no signs of ending. In several parts of Australia, including the entire state of Victoria, they are being extended. The city of Melbourne has also added a nine o’clock curfew on top of its lockdown restrictions.
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In New Zealand, all current closures are now extended until at least midnight on Tuesday. In Auckland, which is the epicenter of the Delta variant outbreak, it all but guaranteed a hard lockdown will continue.
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More provinces are moving to adopt a vaccine passport system. Quebec was the first to announce it would implement a vaccine passport, and since then B.C. and now Manitoba have both followed suit. Each province is restricting access to things like sporting events, movie theatres, and restaurants only to people who are fully vaccinated. The move has been triggered by a fourth infection wave driven by the Delta variant. Now it looks like Ontario will join them. A number of news agencies, citing sources, say the Ford government will announce details of its vaccine passport system this week.
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Health Canada has authorized the Moderna vaccine for use among children 12 years old and older. It becomes the second vaccine in Canada behind Pfizer/BioNTech to be green-lit for use among young children. Health Canada says it assesses the Moderna vaccine to be “safe and effective” for children as young as 12.
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It looks like the Government of Canada COVID dashboard is no longer providing updates over the weekend. So we will have to wait until later today to get a sense of how the situation has changed since Friday.
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On the vaccination front to date, 27,815,515 first vaccine doses (73.06% of the total population) have been administered while 25,273,027 people (66.38%) have been fully vaccinated.
In Ontario, it has added 1,575 new infections over the weekend. On Saturday it reported 835 new COVID cases, then another 740 on Sunday. Of those, a whopping 1,226 people who have tested positive are either unvaccinated or have a single vaccine dose. The province has 214 people in a hospital and 158 in an ICU.