The Evening Report - April 26th
Danish Prime Minister wants Denmark to be a global vaccine leader
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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen made a bold pitch in an interview with DR today. The Statsminister says she is inviting vaccine manufacturers, in Denmark and abroad, for discussions on mass producing vaccines in Denmark by 2022. Frederiksen envisions a public/private partnership with a contract to go to tender sometime soon to begin to make Denmark an major vaccine supplier.
“Therefore, our aim is first and foremost to help increase capacity both to ensure security of supply in Denmark, but also for Denmark to play a role in vaccine supply for Europe and globally.”
Frederiksen says the production facility would have a guaranteed contract from the Danish government to purchase enough vaccine doses for Denmark’s population every year.
“We have a huge interest in this, if we are in the situation where we not only need to vaccinate the Danes this year, but also re-vaccinate to boost the vaccine we have already received, that we then have enough vaccines to cover our own population, so we do not experience the dependence we see today on others.”
Frederiksen says any vaccine produced in Denmark would use the mRNA technology because it can be used for vaccines for other diseases outside of COVID.
DR is reporting that critics, while lauding the Prime Minister’s overall goals, are warning that setting up a major vaccine production facility is not something that is likely to happen in the short timeline Mette Frederiksen is touting.
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The Dagbladet Ringkøbing-Skjern newspaper is reporting a possible super spreader event at the Vestas factory in Ringkøbing. At least 25 employees have tested positive leading to another 80 being sent home to quarantine.
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A coronavirus outbreak at Hobro Søndre School in North Jutland has resulted in the school shutting down and students moving to distance learning. The infection began with two students and now includes 34 kids and five teachers. There are 360 students in the school. Once the requisite COVID testing of students, staff, and their families is done, it is expected the school will reopen May 3rd.
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Denmark is reporting 704 COVID infections and two more coronavirus deaths in the last day.
Yesterday there were 352,401 total corona tests done, 159,466 PCR and 192,935 rapid, for a (PCR only) positivity percentage of 0.44%.
COVID hospitalizations (177) are down (-4), while the number of infected people in an ICU (39) and on a ventilator (21) both edged down (each -1).
On the vaccination campaign to date, there have been 1,222,528 1st dose vaccinations (20.9% of the population) while 578,849 people (9.9%) are now fully vaccinated.
Yesterday there were 20,485 total vaccinations administered.
The impact of vaccinations continues to be seen in new infections over the last seven days, which were almost entirely among those 59 years old and younger.
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Johnson & Johnson has sent out letters to European health officials, including the Danish Medicines Agency, advising them that a warning of rare but serious side effects is now included in the vaccine’s product information. It warns of of the possibility of thrombosis (blood clots), thrombocytopenia (low blood platelets), and petechiae (bleeding spots on the skin). The letter from Johnson & Johnson Country Medical Lead Fredrik Borgsten also adds “fatal cases have been reported.” The letter says the side effects occur within three weeks of vaccination and have mainly involved women under 60 years of age.
Denmark’s National Health Board continues to suspend use of the vaccine even as the company has resumed shipping doses to Europe. A decision on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and whether or not Denmark will use it is coming this week.
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Sweden won’t update its numbers until tomorrow.
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Sweden is tweaking its AstraZeneca recommendations and now allowing younger people who have had a first dose of the vaccine to get a second if they wish. The previous recommendation was to offer anyone under the age of 65 who had already had a first dose of AstraZeneca a second dose of either Pfizer or Moderna.
State Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell says the change was made with younger health care workers in mind.
“Since there are care and nursing staff who have already received a dose of AstraZeneca's vaccine and especially wanted to receive a second dose of the same vaccine, we informed them that it is now possible. But our recommendation remains that everyone who has received a dose of Astra Zeneca's vaccine should be offered the mRNA vaccine as their second dose.”
Due to rare but serious side effects, Sweden has restricted AstraZeneca use to people 65 years of age and older.
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Radio Sweden is reporting that Region Skåne (Southern Sweden) is using specialty needles to draw seven doses, instead of the usual five, from vials of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The process was given a trial run at a hospital in the Swedish region with good results. Health officials in Denmark have also said it’s possible to draw seven doses from Pfizer vials.
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Finland registered 593 infections and three deaths since Friday’s update (263 Saturday, 197 Sunday, and 133 today) as its latest COVID wave continues to decline.
COVID hospitalizations(136) are up (+4). ICU numbers (33) also inched up (+2).
To date, 1,529,600 1st dose (27.4% of pop) and 153,460 2nd vaccination doses (2.7%) have been administered.
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A wide range of Finnish stakeholders are lobbying the government to institute a negative test requirement for travelers entering the country before lifting entry restrictions. They want the negative test requirement to work as a bridge between now and when the E.U. coronavirus passport arrives. People like Ville Haapasaari, the CEO of the Port of Helsinki, are concerned that with the area being a major Nordic travel hub, another COVID wave could be triggered with the arrival of infected travelers with no requirement for testing.
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Norway has added 1,041 infections and had no new corona deaths since Friday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (208) are up (+8), ICU numbers (65) inched up (+1), while ventilator numbers (42) also rose (+4).
To date, 22.58% of Norwegians have one vaccine dose and 5.72% have had both.
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Today Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg received her first vaccination shot, a dose of the Moderna vaccine.
“I hope that everyone who is offered a vaccine will say yes. Vaccination means that we can gradually get our everyday lives back.”
(Photo: David Kringstad Grønvik/Forsvare © David Kringstad Grønvik/Forsvarets mediesenter / NTB)
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The European Union filed a lawsuit against AstraZeneca today. E.U. Commission health spokesperson Stefan De Keersmaecker says the E.U. lawsuit argues that the terms of vaccine contract reached with AstraZeneca had "not been respected, and the company has not been in a position to come up with a reliable strategy to ensure timely delivery of doses." The British-Swedish vaccine maker has repeatedly failed to deliver vaccine doses in anywhere near the promised numbers, infuriating European officials. For its part, AstraZeneca says it will strongly defend itself in court.
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Yesterday Canada reported 6,982 infections and another 38 coronavirus deaths.
On the vaccination campaign to date, 11,142,747 1st doses (29.32% of the population) have been administered while 1,015,382 people are now fully vaccinated.
On the variant driven infection wave rolling across the country, the number of different COVID strains continues to grow. B.C. continues to lead all provinces with the number of Brazilian P1 variants while Ontario is piling up U.K. variant infections at an astonishing rate.
As for Ontario today, Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted, “Ontario is reporting 3,510 cases of #COVID19 and over 33,800 tests completed. Locally, there are 1,015 new cases in Toronto, 909 in Peel, 391 in York Region, 244 in Durham and 206 in Ottawa. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 4,696,211 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.“ There were another 24 deaths.
Just days after rejecting an offer of help from the Trudeau government, Ontario is now making a formal request to the Canadian Armed Forces to help deal with a surge in critical COVID cases.
Quebec is reporting 889 infections and eight more deaths today.
In Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia reported 66 new infections, the highest of any day to date. New Brunswick had seven. Newfoundland and Labrador had two.
Manitoba is tightening restrictions after reporting 210 infections and one corona death today. For the next four weeks, private indoor and outdoor gatherings are banned in Manitoba among other restrictions levied to try and curb infections.
There were 249 infections and two deaths in Saskatchewan yesterday.
Alberta registered 1,437 infections and three more deaths yesterday.
B.C. doesn’t report on weekends and will update its numbers later today.
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The White House is confirming it plans to share its supply of AstraZeneca doses with other countries. In a press briefing today, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said “We do not need to use AstraZeneca in our fight against COVID in the next few months. I anticipate in the near future we'll share more details about our planning and who will receive more doses from here.” The move could mean up to 50 million doses of AstraZeneca could be dispatched to other countries. The U.S. has already shared 1.5 million doses with Canada.
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Brazil’s Health ministry is making an unusual plea as the COVID pandemic rages on across the country and hospitals in several regions collapse under the strain. In a statement the ministry is asking women to hold off on getting pregnant.
"If it is possible, it would be better to postpone pregnancies until a moment when the situation is a little more relaxed. We cannot say this to those who are 42, 43 years old, of course, but, for a young woman who can, the best thing is to wait for a little while.”
The crush of COVID patients on hospitals means expecting mothers in the country cannot count on reliable care, especially if there are complications. The number of pregnant women who have died from COVID in Brazil has increased dramatically. An average of 22.2 pregnant women died from the coronavirus each week in the first quarter of 2021, nearly double the weekly average for all of 2020.
While Brazil appears to have passed the peak of its variant driven wave infection wave it is still reporting very high numbers of new infections and virus deaths.
