The Evening Report - April 6th
Denmark sets testing record as it continues to expand capacity
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A senior official with the European Medicines Agency is saying for the first time that cases of severe blood clotting and the AstraZeneca vaccine are linked but the cause is still unclear.
Dr. Marco Cavaleri, Head of Anti-infectives and Vaccines, told the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero that it is now “harder to say” that there is no “causal link between the vaccination” and rare cases of severe blood clotting and low platelet count.
“In my opinion, we can say it now, it is clear there is a link with the vaccine. But we still do not know what causes this reaction.”
Cavaleri says the benefits of AstraZeneca still far outweigh the risks.
The European Union’s Health and Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides reacted by saying she was in close contact with the EMA on the AstraZeneca assessment and an “evaluation is expected late Wednesday.”
In Denmark, Tanja Lund Erichsen, with the Danish Medicines Agency, said studies “on a possible link” are ongoing with the European Medicines Agency, whom she notes has not as an agency taken an official position on any link to the vaccine.
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Denmark’s Health Minister Magnus Heunicke says the coronavirus contact number (reinfection rate or R0) has dropped slightly from 1.1 last week to 1 this week. He calls it a “good starting point” for the continued easing of lockdown restrictions this week.
Denmark is reporting 520 COVID infections and two more coronavirus deaths in the last day. There were 383,212 total corona tests done yesterday, 182,186 PCR and 201,026 rapid, for a (PCR only) positivity percentage of 0.29%.
The Danish Agency for Security of Supply says the over 200,000 rapid tests done yesterday are a single day record in Denmark. The agency says an additional 100,000 rapid tests per day have now been made available, scaling up daily rapid test capacity to 300,000. It says that by May total testing capacity in Denmark will be ramped up to 700,000 per day.
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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen took to Instagram today to say thanks to all the people who administer and analyze COVID tests across the country. Frederiksen says in the last 24 hours 400,000 tests have been analyzed for COVID and screened for variants.
As Denmark continues to gradually reopen, the demand for testing will continue to grow. This was seen in the long line ups outside testing centers across the country today.
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COVID hospitalizations (219) have edged down (-1) while the number of those in an ICU (38) also dropped slightly (-2). The number on a ventilator (28) is unchanged.
On the vaccination front to date, 789,419 1st dose vaccinations (13.5% of the population) have been administered, while 409,187 people (7%) are now fully vaccinated.
Yesterday there were 13,633 total vaccinations administered.
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The vaccination impact continues to be seen in the new infections graph below. The number of new COVID cases in those over the age of 60 are falling like a rock while numbers are almost entirely impacting those under the age of 60.
Two private companies have won the tender to administer COVID vaccinations in four of Denmark’s five regions. According to the Central Jutland Region, a company called Practio will help administer vaccinations in Southern Denmark while the Danish Doctors Association will do the same in Metro Copenhagen and North and Central Jutland. No one bid on the contract for Region Sjælland and further negotiations will have to take place to find a private provider.
In both cases the contracts begin on May 16th.
The Danish government announced earlier this year that private providers would be brought on board to try and push daily vaccinations to 400,000 per day.
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Sweden has added 21,802 infections and 35 more corona deaths since its last update on Thursday.
To date 1,271,799 1st dose (15.5% of the population) and 540,288 2nd dose (6.6%) vaccinations have been administered.
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A study by the Swedish Public Health Agency found that while COVID rapid tests have limitations, including a high risk of false negative results, they are a good additional screening tool. The study focused on testing seniors care home staff and managed to identify a number of workers, though not all, who had the coronavirus but who were asymptomatic.
The study concluded “antigen testing should be used with caution and with a high level of awareness of its limitations. This is because two out of five virus-positive people were missed with the antigen test. Antigen tests should also not replace PCR tests in detecting disease.”
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Finland has registered 331 infections since yesterday’s update as overall numbers continue to ease. Since Friday it has recorded 14 more virus deaths.
COVID hospitalizations (249) are down (-8). ICU numbers (45) are also down.
To date 975,697 1st dose (17.5% of the population) and 89,722 2nd dose (1.6%) vaccinations have been administered.
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Norway has added 619 infections and one more coronavirus death since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (293) are up (+2). ICU (90) and ventilator (59) numbers are both down (each -8).
To date, 990,602 1st doses (13.09% of the population) and 279,352 2nd vaccination doses (5.28%) have been administered.
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While numbers are generally subdued across Europe so far today Greece is bucking that trend as it reports 4,309 new infections, its second highest of any day yet, along with another 79 corona deaths.
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Yesterday Canada reported 10,386 new infections and 56 more corona deaths. However, due to a patchwork of Easter long weekend catch up reporting across the provinces, only 6,267 infections and 43 fatalities took place in the previous 24 hour period.
On the mass vaccination effort to date, 5,836,927 1st doses (15.36% of the population) have been administered while 718,462 people are now fully vaccinated.
Variants are spreading like wildfire in Canada. The latest federal update shows Alberta added another 2,243 U.K. variant infections over the Easter long weekend. B.C. leads all provinces with the Brazilian P1 variant. It added another 367 P1 variant infections and 637 more U.K. mutation infections over the holiday weekend.
Today Ontario’s Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted, “Ontario is reporting 3,065 cases of COVID19 and over 37,500 tests completed. Locally, there are 955 new cases in Toronto, 561 in Peel, 320 in York Region, 165 in Ottawa and 132 in Niagara. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 2,621,839 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.” There were also eight more deaths. The number of people in an ICU hit 510 today, marking the first time in the pandemic ICU numbers in Ontario have exceeded 500.
Ontario is moving up by two weeks its timeline to get essential workers vaccinated. Vaccinations are now scheduled to start mid-May instead of the previously planned start date of June 1. The province is also going to try and ramp up daily vaccinations to 100,000 per day in May.
In Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia has six new infections. Newfoundland and Labrador have no new infections. New Brunswick has yet to report.
Quebec reported 1,168 new infections and another four deaths today. Hospitalizations stand at 514 with 121 people in an ICU. The province expanded a lockdown across several municipalities yesterday as infection numbers rise and Premier François Legault has called a press conference for later today. What he will discuss is unknown.
Manitoba reported two days worth of COVID data on Monday registering 135 infections and two deaths.
There were 219 infections and one death reported in Saskatchewan yesterday.
Alberta recorded 887 infections and four corona deaths yesterday. While the province has by far the most U.K. variant infections in Canada it is also dealing with an outbreak of the Brazilian P1 variant. The outbreak is spread across four work sites for one company with at least 26 infections so far.
B.C. reported 1,889 total new infections over two days, 999 cases Sunday and 890 on Monday. Another 23 people have died.