The Evening Report - Apr 28
A significant development in the fight against COVID. Norway steps up help to Ukraine
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In a significant development in the fight against the coronavirus Moderna has announced it has submitted a request for an emergency authorization of use to the American Food and Drug Administration as well as other “international regulatory authorities” for use of its COVID vaccine on infants 6 months old up to children 6 years of age.
Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel:
“We are proud to share that we have initiated our EUA submission for authorization for our COVID vaccine for young children. We believe mRNA-1273 will be able to safely protect these children against SARS-CoV-2, which is so important in our continued fight against COVID and will be especially welcomed by parents and caregivers."
The application is for a 25 μg two dose series of its pediatric vaccine. In a release, the company says clinical trials among children “showed a robust neutralizing antibody response in the 6 month to under 6 years of age group” after two doses. It says the antibody protection from the pediatric vaccine was statistically similar to the protection the Moderna vaccine offers adults.
Moderna also revealed it is studying booster doses for children in age groups where the vaccine has already been approved for use.
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The Danish National Board of Health has eased COVID rules in hospitals and senior care homes. Requirements to wear a mask in both settings have now largely been removed. Mask use in healthcare facilities and senior care homes is now only recommended for people with respiratory infection symptoms such as having a cough or runny nose.
Unit ahead Bolette Søborg:
“We are now moving towards more normal conditions in the health care system and in seniors care, and therefore there is no need to protect oneself as much as there was earlier in the year. This means, among other things, that visitors and staff no longer need to wear face masks.”
The lifting of the mask requirement also extends to hospital and care home staff.
The changes also mean COVID testing requirements will also be eased in healthcare settings.
“As something new, you should basically only be tested in the healthcare system if you have COVID symptoms. Therefore, it will only be in some special situations that people without symptoms must have a test for the sake of monitoring and infection prevention.”
The World Health Organization has warned countries to not ease up on COVID testing and continue to maintain a high level of surveillance on the evolution and spread of the virus.
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Denmark’s pandemic picture continues to improve as measured by sources both reliable and unreliable. That is according to the latest weekly snapshot from the Staten Serum Institute.
Starting with the more reliable pandemic barometers. The number of new hospital admissions dropped by 14% in week 16. With the exception of the age groups of 10 to 19, 50 to 59, and seniors 90 years old and older, hospitalization rates by age also dropped. Those 70 to 89 years old continue to make up the largest overall number of new admissions as they have for weeks. Of all COVID-related hospitalizations, the number of admissions directly because of an infection remained stable at 49% in week 14 compared to the 50% of the week before.
Pandemic deaths didn’t increase or decrease from week 15 to week 16 but held steady with 88 lives lost to the coronavirus
COVID wastewater testing showed declining coronavirus activity at a national level across Denmark. Looking at each of the five regions and wastewater testing also shows dropping virus activity across the board.
Denmark has been testing blood donations made by people at the Danish blood bank and releasing results every two weeks. The goal is to get a better idea of the true extent of societal infection spread. Extrapolating the latest results from week 13, the Staten Serum Institute calculates that 68% of the population has had an infection since November of 2021.
On the variant front, BA.2 accounts for almost 100% of all sequenced positive tests in Denmark. Breaking down the results even further, the SSI says BA.2 with the H78Y mutation (23.9%) saw a slight decrease week to week. The two new variants BA.2.1 (4.35%) and BA.2.3 (1.63%) both held steady.
As for the less than reliable measuring statistics, the number of new infections decreased last week by almost 13% compared to the week before.
The positivity percentage also continued to ease, dropping from 19% to 16% from one week to the next. In the same week, the number of PCR tests taken actually increased by 5%.
Across the age groups there was a small increase in virus rates among 12 to 15 year olds, those 16 to 19, and the 20 to 24 year olds. Case numbers dropped across all other age groups. The COVID incidence rate is still highest among those 50 years old and older. The positivity rate is increasing among 3 to 15 year olds. The highest positivity percentage by age (18%) is among those 50 to 59 years old.
COVID cases among seniors in care, a population that continues to see higher testing numbers, dropped from 326 infections to 289 from week 15 to week 16. The number of pandemic deaths among nursing home residents last week also dropped from 33 to 19 week to week.
The SSI is anticipating that infection numbers will continue to drop in “the coming weeks” as will hospital admissions and pandemic deaths.
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COVID hospitalizations (685) continue to fall (-32) while the number of severe infections in an ICU (10) also dipped (-3) and of those there is now just one person on a ventilator (-1). #COVID admissions to a psych ward (210) also dropped (-12).
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Denmark has reported 1,088 COVID infections (underreported), including 88 reinfections, and 10 more coronavirus deaths in the last day.
On Wednesday, there was 10,306 PCR corona tests taken, equaling a positivity percentage of 10.55%.
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On the vaccination front, there were just 370 booster doses administered yesterday as the national vaccination campaign grinds to a halt.
So far, 82.2% of the total population have one dose, 80.7% have two, and 61.6% have a booster dose.
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Denmark’s late influenza infection wave continues to ebb. New flu cases dropped by almost 35% last week, with 807 new confirmed infections. That also marks the fourth consecutive week of dropping flu cases. The influenza positivity percentage last week was 9.6%.
Staten Serum Institute Ward Doctor Rebecca Legarth:
“As the number of people being tested for influenza has grown by more than one and a half percent at the same time, it confirms the trend we have seen in recent weeks - that the influenza epidemic is returning," says ward doctor Rebecca Legarth from SSI.
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Sweden added 425 infections (wildly underreported) and another 83 corona deaths since its last update on Thursday of last week.
So far, 87.1% of those 12yo+ have one dose, 84.9% have two doses, and of those 18yo+ 64.1% have a booster shot. #Sverige
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The pandemic is not over. The Swedish Public Health Agency put that at the top of their latest weekly COVID assessment; as it notes the number of new infections continues to fall. In week 16, it says there were just over 2,500 corona cases confirmed, an 18% drop from the week before. Sweden doesn’t offer COVID testing to the general public anymore and instead just tests seniors in care and those in hospitals. Even then, the agency says testing also continues to drop, with about 20,200 tests in the same week. That is 6% fewer tests than the week previous. It also equals a positivity percentage of about 12.37%. While it notes falling case numbers, it also adds “that the spread of the infection is still significant.”
“As testing is concentrated on health care and elderly care, the number of cases is still higher than before during the pandemic.”
The health agency says the Omicron variant accounts for close to 100% of all sequenced positive test results. It says the Omicron sub-variant BA.2 is dominant. Again, keep in mind, Sweden is barely testing and sequencing numbers will be even lower still.
Looking at the more reliable pandemic barometers, the Swedish Public Health Agency says ICU numbers continue to hold steady, remaining at roughly the same level since mid-March. In week 16, there were 14 new intensive care admissions.
COVID fatality numbers continue to decrease as they have since the end of February. In week 14, the agency says 117 pandemic deaths have “so far” been reported. Sweden has been struggling with a backlog of processing coronavirus deaths for months. The health agency makes a passing reference to the backlog by saying “there is a certain delay in the statistics.”
State Epidemiologist Anders Lindblom is urging people in Sweden, especially vulnerable seniors, to get vaccinated.
“We must not forget that we still have a pandemic, and it is still very important that the oldest and most fragile get a booster dose. At the same time, it is gratifying that so many people aged 65 to 79 have already taken their fourth dose.”
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Norway has added 828 infections (underreported) and another 61 virus deaths in the last 48 hours.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health no longer reports daily hospitalization data.
So far, 80.4% of Norwegians 12 years old and older have one dose, 74.8% have two, and 54.3% have a booster dose.
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Finland registered 22,541 infections and added 301 corona deaths since its last update a week ago. Finland has moved to a once-a-week pandemic update, which is published every Thursday.
COVID hospitalizations (812) are unchanged.
To date, 80.2% of the total population have one dose, 77% have two, and 52.1% have a booster dose.
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Germany recorded 130,104 infections and 245 more pandemic deaths since yesterday’s update.
It added 1,510 COVID hospitalizations, while ICU numbers (1,446) declined (-74). As a percentage of total intensive care beds in the country, coronavirus patients are using 6.6%.
To date, 76.7% of the total population have one dose, 76.1% have two doses, and 59.3% have a booster shot.
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If you want to get a better idea of how much testing is declining across Europe, take a look at the latest COVID assessment map from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. It has begun greying out counties where testing is so low that it is deemed insufficient to gather any accurate pandemic data.
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COVID hospitalizations continue to mount in Canada as the total number of beds used by coronavirus patients rose from 7,008 to 7,351 in the week ending April 25. Of those, general hospital admissions increased by 341 to 6,891. As for intensive care numbers, they inched by two to 460. The only statistic bucking the trend was the number of people on a ventilator, which dropped by 6 to 188.
Canada reported 5,170 infections on Wednesday while suffering another 49 fatalities pushing total to-date pandemic deaths past 39,000.
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The Canadian vaccination effort has so far administered 32,866,057 1st vaccine doses (85.96% of the total population) while 31,257,613 people (81.75%) have two doses, and of those 18,397,443 are fully vaccinated with three doses.
🇺🇦/ 🇷🇺 War
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TV2 is reporting that a 25 year-old Danish citizen was killed fighting in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion against Russia. The station says he was killed in an attack on the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv two days ago. The station says it has confirmed the death via sources, which include the young man’s family.
Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has so far not confirmed the death.
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The Danish government has set up a process to ensure refugees from Ukraine can get vaccinated against a number of infectious diseases after arriving in Denmark. The executive order outlining the temporary vaccination effort is backed by 12 million kroner. The health ministry notes it is concerned about low vaccination rates in Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion. It specifically notes Ukraine has had the highest incidence of measles in all of Europe with over 50,000 cases annually. But the program won’t just target measles but also other infectious diseases like polio and diphtheria.
Health Minister Magnus Heunicke:
“We must ensure that displaced children and adults from Ukraine can be offered free vaccinations as soon as possible after their arrival in Denmark. The opportunity must be there for them even as they decide whether they want to stay in Denmark, or while they are waiting to get a residence permit. Ukraine has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Europe. This can pose a risk to the individual, but also to public health in Denmark.”
The temporary vaccination program comes into force as of April 30 and will last for at least six months.
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With a general election looming Sweden’s Prime Minister is rejecting the idea of taking the issue of whether to join NATO to a national referendum. A majority of the Swedish parliament now supports giving up its long held policy of neutrality and joining NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Statsminister Magdalena Andersson as quoted in Reuters:
“I don't think it is an issue that is suitable for a referendum. There is a lot of information about national security that is confidential, so there are important issues in such a referendum that cannot be discussed and important facts that cannot be put on the table."
Andersson’s ruling Social Democrats are currently reassessing their stance on opposing NATO membership, with the party’s opposition seen as the last hurdle to Sweden joining the NATO fold.
The Swedish government is currently reviewing its security policy with the report due in mid-May. A federal election in Sweden is scheduled for September.
🇳🇴/ 🇬🇧 🇺🇦
Norway is contributing 400 million Norwegian kroner (about $54.5 million Cdn) to a fund led by the United Kingdom for the express purpose of purchasing and transporting military weapons and equipment to Ukraine.
Minister of Defense Bjørn Arild Gram:
“Under British coordination and in close contact with Ukraine, we will identify and prioritize Ukraine’s need for defense equipment and then place orders with third countries or with industry. This will give Ukraine predictability and help its operational planning.”
While the UK will lead the fund, Norway will have control over what weapons and equipment are purchased with the money it is contributing.