The Evening Report - June 18th
Denmark hits another vaccination milestone
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Denmark is opening its doors to travelers from Albania, Lebanon, Northern Macedonia, and Serbia as it follows the EU’s lead on assessing ‘safe’ countries to allow travel from. All four of the above countries will also move from orange to low-risk yellow, pending the reintroduction of green in Denmark’s colour-coded COVID risk assessment of other countries.
Denmark is also allowing entry to travelers from Taiwan, the USA, as well as the special administrative regions of Hong Kong, and Macao. But these countries and regions will stay orange due to having significant entry restrictions for travelers from Europe.
As well, a number of regions across Europe are also moving from orange to yellow. In France they are Brittany, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (including Nice, Cannes, and Marseille).
In Greece Crete, Epirus, Ionian Islands, Western Greece, and Central Greece all move to yellow.
Also going from orange to yellow is the Melilla region of Spain and the Jura region in Switzerland.
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Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke is marking a significant vaccination milestone today. Heunicke says that half the total population now has at least one vaccine dose while almost a third of the population (27%) is fully vaccinated.
On the vaccination front to date 2,941,171 1st dose vaccinations (50.3% of the population) have been administered while 1,589,896 people (27.2%) are now fully vaccinated.
Yesterday there were 65,931 total vaccinations done.
Denmark is reporting 203 COVID infections and no new coronavirus deaths in the last day.
Yesterday there were 474,480 total corona tests done, 91,175 PCR and 383,305 rapid, for a (PCR only) positivity percentage of 0.22%.
Another sign of a plummeting pandemic situation in Denmark. Currently there isn’t a single kommune in Denmark with a COVID incidence rate above 100 per 100,000 residents.
COVID hospitalizations (84) are unchanged while the number of infected people in an ICU (20) inched upward (+1) and of those the number on a ventilator (15) also remains the same day over day.
TV2 is reporting that two børnehaver (daycare/kindergarten) in Tilst near Aarhus have had confirmed cases of the Delta COVID variant. Authorities are doing infection detection and contact tracing everyone at the school who had contact with the infection cases.
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Sweden hasn’t updated its COVID numbers again today as it continues to struggle with its SmiNet database issue.
It is still updating vaccination stats, though. To date, 4,315,017 1st doses (52.7% of the population) and 2,416,335 2nd vaccine doses (29.5%) have been administered.
The number of COVID patients being treated in IVA wards in Sweden continues to decline. SVT Nyheter reports that there are 92 patients as of today, which is down (-3). On Wednesday this week, the number of corona patients dipped under 100 for the first time since November 7.
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Norway has added 219 infections and had no new deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (39) are down (-4) while the number of people in an ICU (12) also dipped (-2) and of those the number on a ventilator (7) dropped as well (-3).
To date 39.37% of Norwegians have had one vaccine dose while 26.67% have had both.
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As Norway’s infection curve continues to drop, a third phase of the country’s four-phase reopening will go ahead on Sunday. Bars and restaurants will no longer have to close by midnight and people can have up to 20 guests inside a private residence. Sporting events can welcome more spectators and border restrictions will be eased a little bit. But Prime Minister Erna Solberg also cautioned that COVID remains a threat, especially with increasing numbers of variants. She says the pandemic situation continues to be “unpredictable.”
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Finland has registered 73 new infections since yesterday’s update with no new deaths.
To date 2,991,193 1st dose vaccinations (53.6% of the population) and 803,379 people (14.4%) are now fully vaccinated.
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Portugal is seeing infection numbers not seen since February. Over the last 48 hours, new daily infections have surged over the 1,000 mark each day for the first time in four months. Health officials believe the concerning Delta variant has arrived and is spreading.
As of 3pm local time this afternoon, all travel in and out of the Lisbon metropolitan area is banned. Health officials are seeing the highest cluster of new infection cases there. The COVID incidence rate in Lisbon per 100,000 residents is 254, compared to Portugal’s national average of 90. Flights in and out of Lisbon airport are exempt from the ban, as are business trips.
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Germany has passed a significant vaccination milestone, with half the population now having at least one dose and one in three people now fully vaccinated. German Health Minister Jens Spahn says 41.6 million people in Germany (50.1%) have had one inoculation and 24.6 million people (29.6%) have had both doses.
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German health officials warned today that it is not a matter of if the Delta variant will become the dominant coronavirus strain in Germany, but rather when. The head of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for Infection Diseases, Lothar Wieler, said today that while the Delta variant only makes a small percentage of the current cases, its growth rate is already setting off alarm bells. Wiener expects the variant to become dominant and make its biggest impact by this coming fall.
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The Netherlands is returning to almost normal. News agency DPA reporting today that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced today almost all of the country’s COVID restrictions will be lifted by June 26. Dutch nightlife venues can reopen and restaurants, museums, and theaters can move closer to normal operations. Masks are no longer required unless on public transit or in situations where social distancing isn’t possible.
The Netherlands is still seeing between 800 to 1,000 new infections per day.
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A Belgian court has come down hard on AstraZeneca. The Court of First Instance has ordered the vaccine maker to deliver 50 million doses to Europe by September 27. It must do so on a set schedule.
15 million doses by 26 July, at 9am
20 million doses by 23 August,
15 million doses at 27 September.
If it fails to comply, then AstraZeneca will be fined €10 per vaccine dose not delivered.
The EU says the decision proves AstraZeneca “committed a serious breach of its contractual obligations.” The EU has sued AstraZeneca for failing to meet vaccine delivery obligations.
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The EU could open up to more international tourists by next week if they are fully vaccinated. The New York Times has its hands on the draft rules and reports the bloc is preparing to accept fully vaccinated visitors who have had two doses of an EU-or WHO-approved-vaccine. This would cover vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Sinopharm. The move would also officially open the door to vaccinated Americans, as the EU, and more specifically tourist-dependent countries like Greece and Spain, look to jumpstart the on-life-support tourism sector.
The draft changes still have some legislative hurdles to overcome, but might be passed by next week.
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In its latest threat assessment, Public Health England has found that the Delta variant now makes up 91% of all sequenced positive test results. About 80% of all positive tests were screened in the country. The health agency reaffirms that the variant is more contagious than B.1.1.7 and has higher rates of secondary attack spreading through anyone an infected person has been in contact with.
The agency emphasizes that the jury is still out on whether it is more deadly, even though so far fatality rates remain lower than the Alpha variant. It says mortality is a lagging indicator and too many cases are still in the 28-day follow-up window.
On vaccine efficacy, the PHE says “current evidence suggests that vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation is maintained for Delta.” But again, it stresses that more information is needed “vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization requires careful consideration.” Overall vaccine efficacy is reduced with one dose and still high with two.
The agency says the most common area for reported Delta exposures are education settings. In the last four-week period, there were 181 outbreaks linked to primary and secondary schools, with at least one variant case linked to them. But for context, that represents around 0.8% of all schools.
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Canada reported 1,114 new infections while suffering another 12 coronavirus deaths as total to date pandemic fatalities now exceed 26,000.
On the vaccination front to date 24,879,941 1st dose vaccinations (65.38% of the population) have been administered while 6,004,387 people (15.78%) are now fully vaccinated.
In Ontario today Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted “Ontario is reporting 345 cases of #COVID19 and over 26,600 tests completed. Locally, there are 85 new cases in Waterloo, 50 in Toronto, 50 in Peel, 29 in Hamilton and 22 in York Region. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 12,153,663 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered”
Quebec reported 127 infections and two more deaths.
In Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia had 11 new infections. New Brunswick has three. Newfoundland and Labrador zero.
Manitoba saw 189 infections and another four deaths.
There were 98 infections and one death in Saskatchewan yesterday.
Alberta recorded 150 infections and two more deaths yesterday. The province has announced that virtually all restrictions will be lifted by Canada Day.
B.C. registered 120 infections and one more corona death yesterday.