The Evening Report - April 12th

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While we wait for a final number it is a certainty that Denmark has broken a daily vaccinations record today.

Statsminister Mette Frederiksen made an appearance at a vaccination site in Roskilde today to check in on the big vaccination push to inoculate 100,000 people today.

(Picture courtesy of Region Sjælland/Twitter)

Region Hovedstaden (Metro Copenhagen) says it has vaccinated 20,239 people as of 5:15 this afternoon. With Region Sjaelland saying earlier today they had vaccinated almost 20,000 people a new vaccination record is a certainly just between those two health regions alone. Numbers are still outstanding from the other three.

Under the new executive order coming into force today one Kommune and two parishes have infection numbers exceeding the benchmark to close all schools, leisure centers, sports activities, and cultural events.

Ishøj Kommune has a test adjusted incidence rate exceeding 200 per 100,000 people so it remains locked down.

The two parishes are Hedeager Parish in Herning with an incidence rate of of 963, 44 new infections, and a positive percentage of 3.8% and Kollerup-Fjerritslev Parish in Jammerbugt with an incidence rate of 585, 22 new infections, and a positivity percentage of 2.5%. 

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Denmark is reporting 514 COVID infections and two more coronavirus deaths in the last day.

There were 338,749 COVID tests done yesterday, 155,519 PCR and 183,230 rapid, for a (PCR only) positivity percentage of 0.33%.

COVID hospitalizations (207) have dropped (-4) while the number of people in an ICU (40) inched up (+2) and of those the number of patients on a ventilator (28) is unchanged.

On the vaccination effort, to date 883,375 1st vaccine doses (15.1% of the population) have been administered while 449,419 people (7.7%) are now fully vaccinated.

The impact of the mass vaccination campaign continues to be reflected in the number of new infections over the last seven days. New COVID cases for those over the age of 60 continue to drop like a rock. New coronavirus cases are now concentrated almost entirely among those aged 59 and younger and highest among those aged 10 to 29 years old.

Denmark’s National Health Board has issued its latest vaccination update up to April 6th. Here is how the vaccination effort is progressing in each of the priority groups currently being vaccinated.

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While Sweden won’t update its COVID numbers until tomorrow the Swedish Intensive Care Registry is reporting surging ICU numbers. It says there are 392 coronavirus patients currently in an ICU, higher than the country’s second wave peak of 389 recorded in early January, but not as high as the 558 ICU patient peak during the first wave in the spring of 2020. 

The latest assessment from Our World in Data has Sweden leading all European countries for daily new confirmed COVID infections measured as an incidence rate per 100,000 people. The rest of the Nordics Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland are all on the bottom.

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Finland has registered 225 infections and six virus deaths in the last 24 hours.

Since Friday’s update it has added 1,017 total infections (446 on Saturday, 346 on Sunday, and today).

COVID hospitalizations (185) have dropped (-39) ICU numbers (42) have inched up (+1).

On the vaccination campaign, to date 1,133,993 1st vaccine doses (20.3% of the population) while 95,246 people (1.7%) are now fully vaccinated.

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Norway has added 1,587 infections and three more corona deaths since Friday.

COVID hospitalizations (287) are up (+11) ICU numbers (80) edged down (-2) while those on a ventilator (55) also dropped slightly (-1).

To date 16.12% of Norwegians have now had a 1st vaccine dose and 5.50% have had both.

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The E.U. is facing a steeply rising price as it negotiates a new bulk buy of the Pfizer vaccine. The price per dose, first revealed by the Prime Minister of Bulgaria and then confirmed by the European Union, is €19.5 (almost $30 Cdn). That is a significant increase from the €15.5 per dose price the E.U. paid for its first vaccine bulk buy with Pfizer/BioNTech. The negotiations are for 1.8 billion vaccine doses, with the option for another 900 million, delivered to Europe in 2022 and 2023. 

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Yesterday Canada registered 7,621 new infections and another 28 virus deaths.

On the vaccination effort to date 7,190,112 1st doses (18.92% of the population) have been administered while 797,265 people are now fully vaccinated.

The latest variant update from the Government of Canada continues to show explosive growth in the number of infections involving a mutated COVID strain. 

Since Friday B.C. has added another 240 U.K. variant infections and 91 more cases of the Brazilian P1 variant. It continues to have the highest numbers of the Brazilian variants of any province. 

Alberta saw its numbers of the U.K. variant continue to march upward adding another 2,412 cases since Friday. 

Ontario continues to see explosive growth of the U.K. variant increasing by another 4,755 infections to lead all provinces. 

As for today in Ontario COVID numbers remain concerning according to Health Minister Christine Elliott on Twitter “Ontario is reporting 4,401 cases of COVID19 and over 47,900 tests completed. Locally, there are 1,282 new cases in Toronto, 772 in Peel, 564 in York Region, 339 in Ottawa and 224 in Durham. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 3,214,465 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.“ There were also 15 more corona deaths yesterday. ICU capacity has hit another record high with 619 coronavirus patients.

Ontario has just closed all schools and moved students to online learning “until further notice” due to exploding infection numbers.

In Quebec there were 1,599 new infections reported today along with two more corona deaths. There are 630 people in hospital with 142 in an ICU.

In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick has nine new infections. Nova Scotia five. While Newfoundland and Labrador had one.

Manitoba registered 112 new infections and no new deaths on Sunday.

There were 321 infections and one more corona death in Saskatchewan yesterday.

COVID variants are now dominant in Alberta as they now make up over 50% of all active cases in the province. There were 1,183 new infections in Alberta yesterday and one more death. The province has a positivity percentage of 7.94%.

B.C. does not report on weekends and it will table three days worth of COVID stats later today.

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Regeneron Pharmaceuticals says its antibody drug reduced the risk of COVID infection by 81% for people who are living with someone who is infected. This could be a new use for the drug, which is already in use to treat corona cases. Regeneron said today it will ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize the drug for expanded use for people not yet vaccinated but who could be at risk of being exposed to the virus.