The Evening Report - April 14th
AstraZeneca out and Pfizer to the rescue
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More vaccine doses are coming to Europe from Pfizer/BioNTech. The company is shipping 50 million extra doses to the E.U. in the second quarter of this year. This will push total doses delivered by Pfizer to Europe to 250-million by the end of June.
The E.U. is also in negotiations with Pfizer for another 1.8-billion vaccine doses for 2022 and 2023.
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Health Minister Magnus Heunicke says 650,000 doses of the 50 million additional Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses coming to the E.U. are headed here to Denmark.
He says this is “absolutely crucial” for Denmark’s vaccination efforts.
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After today’s decision to stop all AstraZeneca vaccinations, Denmark’s National Health Board has updated the vaccination schedule. The target date to get everyone in the country fully vaccinated has now been pushed into early August, a five week delay.
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The first doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine arrived in Denmark early this morning. The Staten Serum Institut says the delivery was a bit of a surprise as the shipment wasn’t expected until next week.
All told, 38,400 doses of the one-shot vaccine arrived. Institut staff were under the gun to get boxes of the vaccine out of the deep freeze container, into the warehouse, check the shipment, and into another storage freezer all within an 18 minute window.
The doses will remain in the freezer until the issue around post-vaccination blood clotting is resolved. Yesterday, the company suspended European roll-out of the vaccine after six blood clotting reports in the U.S.
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While most of Denmark continues to gradually ease out of lockdown restrictions, it is the opposite story in Ishøj. The Kommune in the suburbs of Copenhagen remains the hardest hit municipality in Denmark with a COVID incidence rate of 367.5 per 100,000 people, well over the benchmark of 200. This has triggered a broad municipality wide shut down.
As of April 15th, all department stores, liberal service industries, shopping malls, arcades, bazaars, and amusement parks must close. The closure does not include grocery stores and pharmacies.
The Kommune can only reopen when it is under a test-corrected incidence rate of 200 for seven days in a row.
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Denmark is reporting 663 COVID infections and one coronavirus death in the last day.
Yesterday a total of 424,668 corona tests were done, 185,565 PCR and 239,103 rapid, for a (PCR only) positivity percentage of 0.36%.m
COVID hospitalizations (204) have increased (+7), the number of people in an ICU (41) has also inched up (+2), and the number of people on a ventilator (29) also increased slightly (+1).
On the vaccination effort to date, 995,672 1st dose vaccinations (17% of the population) have been administered while 467,955 people (8%) are fully vaccinated.
Yesterday there were 25,479 total vaccinations administered.
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Sweden has added 8,879 infections and another 60 corona deaths since yesterday’s update as its infection curve continues to push upward.
To date, 1,543,414 1st dose vaccinations (18.8% of the population) have been administered while 631,807 people (7.7%) are fully vaccinated.
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Sweden’s Public Health Agency has suspended use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine pending results of an investigation into post-vaccination blood clotting in the U.S.
The agency says it received 31,000 doses of the vaccine but none will be distributed for use. The Folkhälsomyndigheten says it will await a review of the vaccine from the European Medicines Agency before deciding a further course of action.
The news that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine deliveries to Europe will be temporarily stopped came on Tuesday. This is after the USA announced that the country is pausing its vaccinations after reports of some cases of serious side effects.
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The Swedish Public Health Agency is also investigating whether to permanently restrict the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to those 65 years of age and older. Also under the microscope is how to deal with people in Sweden who have had a first AstraZeneca dose but not a second.
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Finland has registered 400 infections and four more virus deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (180) are down (-2). ICU numbers (34) are also down (-4).
On the vaccination front to date, 1,190,340 1st dose (21.3% of the population) and 102,879 2nd dose (1.8%) vaccinations have been administered.
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Finland is staying the course in administering AstraZeneca vaccinations only to people aged 65 and older.
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare Chief Physician Hanna Nohynek.
“Vaccinations will be continued in people aged 65 and over, as they have not been found to have an increased risk of developing very rare blood clotting problems after vaccination. In the elderly, the risk of severe coronavirus disease is many times higher than in those who are younger.”
However, as a precautionary measure, the Finnish health agency is recommending AstraZeneca not be used for those 65 years of age or older who have a history of cerebral venous thrombosis (sinus thrombosis) or heparin-associated thrombocytopenia.
In Finland, three cases of rare side effects have been reported out of almost 250,000 people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine. In all cases the people impacted have been under the age of 65.
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Norway has added 683 infections and 18 corona deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (261) are down (-6), ICU numbers (72) are down (-3), and ventilator numbers (53) also declined (-4).
To date 16.65% of Norwegians have had a 1st vaccination dose and 5.51% have had both.
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The extra Pfizer vaccine doses flowing to Europe will mean an additional 550,000 vaccine doses headed to Norway.
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The European Medicines Agency says it expects to expedite its safety review of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following reports of adverse side effects in the U.S. and table recommendations next week.
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On the AstraZeneca front, the EMA says it is undertaking a review of all vaccine data especially dealing with infection rates, hospitalisations, morbidity and mortality. It says the review should help European health authorities put the risks of using the AstraZeneca vaccine into context. The Committee will also consider whether to update recommendations for a second dose of the vaccine for those who have already received a first dose.
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Here is the latest snapshot from Our World in Data comparing how a number of countries stack up in the global mass vaccination effort, or the jabs in the arms race.
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In Canada yesterday 7,548 new infections and another 36 corona deaths were registered. Infections pressure continues to increase.
On the vaccination effort, to date 7,772,264 1st vaccine doses (20.45% of the population) have been administered while 829,067 people are now fully vaccinated.
Today Ontario’s Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted “Ontario is reporting 4,156 cases of COVID19 and over 54,200 tests completed. Locally, there are 1,254 new cases in Toronto, 593 in Peel, 476 in York Region, 340 in Ottawa and 248 in Durham. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 3,422,974 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.“ There have also been another 28 deaths.
In Ontario, the variant driven wave is putting increasing pressure on hospitals. The Children’s Hospital in Toronto is preparing to take COVID patients to add more capacity. Yesterday, Global News obtained an internal memo from Mackenzie Health Chief of Staff asking for all physicians to help “avoid a total collapse.”
Quebec recorded 1,559 new infections and seven more deaths. Hospitalizations stand at 660 with 152 people in an ICU. A lockdown in three regions of the province has been extended for at least another week.
In the Atlantic provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador have three new infections. New Brunswick has yet to report today. Yesterday it had four new infections. There are three people in hospital in New Brunswick who have been vaccinated, two had one dose and a third both, and yet in a rare instance all are dealing with severe COVID symptoms.
Manitoba registered 135 infections and two corona deaths yesterday.
There were 288 infections and another two deaths in Saskatchewan yesterday.
Alberta reported 1,081 new infections and three more deaths yesterday. There are 402 people in hospital and 88 in an ICU. The COVID positivity percentage in the province is 8.9%.
In B.C. there were 873 infections and two more deaths reported yesterday although due to a data issue those numbers will likely change. There are 377 people in hospital, nearing a record high. 116 are in an ICU.
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Elsewhere in the world India continues to see its infection curve trajectory absolutely rocket upward with another 174,288 infections and 809 deaths today.
