Scandinavia, Europe, and Canada COVID news and numbers
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The impact of vaccinating Denmark’s oldest and most vulnerable is beginning to become apparent. New figures from the Staten Serum Institut says there were just two COVID deaths in nursing homes last week. That is the lowest number of corona fatalities in seniors homes in Denmark since October.
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Denmark’s Health Minister Magnus Heunicke has tweeted that the corona contact number (reinfection rate or R0) is 0.9, down from last week’s 1.1. For the more contagious U.K. variant the contact number is 1.28, a slight increase from last week’s 1.2.
Next week we will begin to see any impacts of the gradual reopening that began on March 1st.
Heunicke also said the U.K. variant now makes up a whopping 72% of all positive COVID tests.
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Odense Mayor Peter Rahbæk Juel says the outbreak situation in the suburb of Vollsmose is still very serious. At a press conference today he said the Kommune will be very proactive in getting people corona tested.
“We will test people in stairwells, on the street, and in apartments.”
Juel says they want to take full advantage of COVID mobile testing and perhaps use empty apartments as isolation rooms to help break infection chains.
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In a press conference today, Statsminister Mette Frederiksen raised the possibility of Denmark becoming a co-owner of a vaccine production facility in Israel or perhaps in another country. The Statsminister has been pushing the European Union to secure more domestic vaccine production facilities to ensure a steady supply of vaccine doses now and in the future. Frederiksen will travel to Israel on Thursday.
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Denmark is reporting 532 infections and two coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours.
With 128,482 COVID tests yesterday the positivity percentage is 0.41%.
COVID hospitalizations (232) are down (-11), ICU numbers (39) have also dipped (-5), while those on a ventilator (20) inched down (-1). Metro #Copenhagen is still seeing the highest number of corona hospitalizations.
On the vaccination effort to date 449,723 1st dose vaccinations (7.7% of population) have been administered while 185,677 people in Denmark (3.2% of population) are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
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Sweden has added 11,804 infections and another 56 corona deaths since its last update on Friday.
To date, there have been 527,186 1st dose COVID vaccinations (6.4% of population) and 273,992 people (3.3% of population) are fully vaccinated.
Sweden’s Chief Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said today that infections in the country have increased by almost 10% during each of the last three weeks. He says a third infection wave is certainly coming. The country’s Public Health Agency is now proposing new restrictions including limiting the number of people in stores and shopping areas.
Tegnell is also puzzled as to why a large number of Swedes seem to be ignoring the recommendation to wear a face mask. A recent report showed mask compliance in Sweden is spotty as best.
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Finland has registered 581 infections and five virus deaths in the last day.
COVID hospitalizations (208) have increased (+8) while ICU numbers (39) remain unchanged.
To date, 383,385 1st dose vaccinations (6.9% of pop) have been administered while 81,914 people (1.5% of pop) are now fully vaccinated.
A day after Finland declared a COVID state of emergency, Prime Minister Sanna Marin pressed pause on invoking the Emergency Powers Act. She says some of the more contentious clauses first need to be clarified in law.
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Norway has added 616 infections and had no new corona deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (110) are up (+8). Ventilator numbers (22) are unchanged.
To date 334,863 1st doses (6.24% of population) and 162,511 2nd vaccine doses (3.03% of population) have been administered.
Norway might be moving to a geographic vaccination model. The government has asked the public health agency to draw up plans while it looks into whether the change is legal. If it gets the go ahead, about 3% of vaccine doses would then be moved from regions with fewer infections to harder hit areas.
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The European Medicines Agency will meet March 11th to decide whether or not to recommend the Johnson and Johnson one shot COVID vaccine for use in Europe. The EU Commission usually formalizes the authorization of use later the same day. If approved, it would be the fourth vaccine to be authorized in Europe. The EU has already secured 400 million doses of the vaccine.
Across Europe, the numbers were generally low, in part due to the usual Monday lull, although with some exceptions.
The pandemic situation in the Czech Republic remains extremely serious. Though infection numbers fell slightly on Monday, they are expected to rise as the week continues. Virus deaths remain very high.
Infections are marching upward in an almost direct line from the Czech Republic to the Black Sea as Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria see surging infection numbers.
Bulgaria’s neighbour Greece is also continuing to see heightened infection activity.
Italy is also showing some worrying indicators. Over the last week or two its daily infections have begun to trend back upward both with the usually highest mid-week numbers and the usually lower Monday numbers as infections have increased each of the last two Mondays.
Farther to north, Estonia is also seeing its infection curve rising sharply. Last Friday it recorded its highest number of new infections to date.
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In the U.K. COVID numbers continue to drop.
Yesterday it registered 5,455 new infections and 104 corona deaths.
Hospitalizations, fatalities, and rate of positive tests have decline over the last seven days.
1st vaccine doses across the United Kingdom now exceed 20-million, while 815,816 are fully vaccinated.
England’s Office of National Statistics published a survey yesterday focused on COVID infections among teachers and students. It found that among those tested in early December, 1.2% of secondary students and 1.6% of teachers tested positive.
As set out by the government’s school reopening plan, students in secondary schools and up will be tested three times at their schools or colleges in the first week of school. On March 8th that will change to twice weekly at home corona testing with government supplied rapid tests kits.
Primary students are exempt.
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Yesterday, Canada reported 3,530 new infections and 23 corona deaths. However only 2,559 infections were in the previous 24 hour period due to some provinces and territories reporting weekend catch up numbers.
To date, total deaths in Canada now exceed 22,000.
On the vaccination front to date, 1,414,405 1st doses (3.72% of pop) have been administered while 535,238 Canadians are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Whitehorse has opened its COVID vaccination clinics to all adults over the age of 18. It becomes the first city in Canada to do so.
B.C. will extend the time between first and second vaccine doses to four months in an effort to get more people 1st dose vaccinations. Other provinces, including Ontario, are looking to follow suit.
Today in Ontario, 966 new infections were reported along with 11 more virus deaths. 677 people are in hospital with 284 in an ICU. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 727,021 vaccine doses have been administered.
In Quebec there were 588 new infections and eight additional deaths. Hospitalizations in the province stood at 628 with 121 people in an ICU.
In Atlantic Canada, Prince Edward Island, which is in a lockdown, reported four new infections including two cases of the U.K. variant. Newfoundland and Labrador reported two new infections. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia reported one each.
Yesterday, Manitoba recorded its lowest infection numbers in months with 35 infections and a single corona death.
Saskatchewan registered 154 new infections.
Alberta logged 291 infections yesterday along with another two corona deaths. The province is beginning to ease some of its restrictions.
B.C filed its first update since Friday recording 1,428 infections over three days, which includes 42 more variant infections.