The Evening Report - Mar 29
Ukraine’s President addresses Danish Parliament. Denmark lifts all entry restrictions
🇺🇦/ 🇷🇺 War
🇩🇰 🇺🇦
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj addressed the Danish Folketinget (Parliament) Thursday afternoon. He told the crowd of Danish parliamentarians that he cannot understand why Russia isn’t being forced to stop its invasion. Zelenskyj called this a “black time and a black hour” for Ukraine and its people.
“Thousands of deadly missiles are being fired at our people daily. The level of brutality has reached a level that is worse than in World War II. Many cities have been completely destroyed. We have a long list of cities that have been destroyed by Russian bombing raids. Many civilians have also been killed. It's a crime against humanity.”
He urged Denmark to help Europe close the door on all Russian oil and do it as soon as possible.
Zelenskyj also asked people in Denmark to light candles and remember the many Ukrainians who have lost their lives in this senseless conflict.
Responding to Zelenskyj’s address, Danish Statsminister Mette Frederiksen called him a “proud leader of a brave people” who are giving everything they have in the fight for freedom.
“Putin has underestimated the Ukrainian people. He has underestimated how difficult it is to take freedom from a people who have experienced having it. He has underestimated their resilience.”
Frederiksen said Denmark will continue to help Ukraine face “Putin’s aggression with a strong response.”
🇩🇰/NATO/ 🇷🇺
Denmark’s Statsminister Mette Frederiksen says a Danish combat battalion, 800 soldiers, is on standby and waiting to be dispatched to the Baltic states should NATO request more troops.
Denmark already has several hundred troops helping shore up NATO’s eastern flank. Danish fighter jets are also helping patrol airspace over the Baltic countries.
🇩🇰🌏/ 🇷🇺
An international coalition struck by Denmark continues to grow, with 49 countries now joining the ‘Group of Friends of Accountability’ in a matter of days. The initiative seeks “ensure accountability for violations against international law and human rights following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.”
The group will also build international support to document and prosecute war crimes committed by Russia, its leaders, and its armed forces in its invasion of Ukraine.
🇩🇰/ 🇷🇺 🇧🇾
Denmark’s Ministry of Trade and Industry says the government will introduce new rules that will ban the sale of cash and securities in Danish kroner to Russia and Belarus. The ministry notes that due to Denmark’s fixed exchange rate policy, the krone could function as a shadow currency for the euro and become an avenue for Russia and Belarus to skirt economic sanctions.
Minister of Trade and Industry Simon Kollerup:
“The harsh economic sanctions are a strong weapon against Putin, and in Denmark we are in favor of the harshest possible sanctions.”
Once official, this would put Denmark in alignment with the EU. As part of existing sanctions levied by the European Union, the sale of cash and securities in the euro to Russia and Belarus has already been banned.
🇩🇰 🍺 🇷🇺
Better late than never. Danish beer giant Carlsberg has finally decided to pull all of its operations out of Russia. Earlier this month, the company stopped producing and selling Carlsberg-branded beer in Russia. However, it kept on producing and selling Baltika beer, a local beer brand it owns. Now that too will be shut down.
“We have made the difficult and immediate decision to divest all our businesses in Russia, which we believe is the right thing to do in the current situation. Once affected, we will no longer have a presence in Russia.”
Carlsberg made the announcement on the same day that Heineken also pulled the plug on its Russian operations due to the war in Ukraine.
🇱🇻 🇳🇱 🇧🇪 🇮🇪 🇨🇿/ 🇷🇺
There was a round of diplomatic purges across Europe today. The Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, and Ireland all ordered Russian diplomats to pack up and get out. All told, about 43 Russian diplomats are headed home. 21 from Belgium, 17 from the Netherlands, four from Ireland, and one from the Czech Republic.
The Czech Repubkic Foreign Affairs Ministry summed up the eviction of Russian diplomats as “reducing the Russian intelligence presence in the EU.”
On the flip side of that coin, Latvian Foreign Affairs Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs says Russia has given the boot to Latvian embassy staff.
“The Russian Federation unjustifiably expels three Latvian diplomats from our embassy in Moscow.”
🇵🇱 🇺🇦
The flood of refugees spilling into Europe from war-torn Ukraine continues to mount. Poland says it has seen around 2.3 million refugees flooding across the Ukrainian border to seek refuge in the country. This does not include all of the refugees who have come through Poland to other EU nations.
🇫🇮/ NATO
Several prominent Finnish politicians have thrown their weight behind the country joining NATO. Among them is Jussi Halla-aho, the Chair of the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.
“My own conclusion is that Finland should apply for NATO membership. The risks associated with this are, in my view, lower than the risks of the other options.”
Halla-aho says he weighed the decision carefully but concluded that Russia is clearly willing to attack its neighbours to further its own goals. He also noted staying out of NATO did little to protect Georgia, Moldova, and now Ukraine. Looking at the Baltic states, all NATO members, Halla-aho noted they are all a thorn in Putin’s side, but Russia hasn’t lifted a finger to threaten them with any military action.
He isn’t alone, the leader of the Finns Party, and member of the Finnish parliament, Riikka Purra, took to her blog today to throw her support behind joining NATO.
“I support Finland's NATO membership and support the state leadership in promoting membership. I do not see NATO membership as an automatic wiper of our problems, but as a desired part of Finland's security and defense policy palette. In addition to its own strong and further strengthened defense capability and will to defend, Finland's security and independence are best supported by its membership in NATO. The basis of our defense is always in our own hands. I see the benefits of the Defense Alliance, especially in terms of prevention and deterrence.”
Last but not least, Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö, while not explicitly, endorsing a move to join NATO, revealed on Thursday that he met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to get a thorough understanding of the process for NATO to accept new members.
“Finland's security needs to be further strengthened. Ways to do that are now being carefully checked. In addition to the narrative given to parliament, all opportunities and prospects are being reviewed. For this purpose, in yesterday's discussion with Chief Secretary Stoltenberg, we thoroughly went through NATO's principles and procedures when the new members were accepted.”
WHO/ 🇺🇦 🇷🇺
World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he is outraged at the continued Russian attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine and the healthcare workers who are inside.
“Peace is the only solution. We repeat our call for Russia to stop the war.”
🦠Pandemic🦠
🇩🇰
Denmark’s Health Minister Magnus Heunicke says the COVID contact number (reinfection rate or R0) remains at 0.7 for the 3rd straight week. He says this indicates the epidemic is continuing to decline in Denmark. However, Heunicke also cautioned that while he thinks Denmark “is still in a good place” there is uncertainty with the R0 due to drastically lower testing numbers.
Heunicke says COVID wastewater testing is a much more reliable pandemic barometer and the latest results shows virus activity falling in Region Nordjylland and Region Midtjylland. But, he also notes COVID activity is “rising slightly in the other three regions.”
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Travel into Denmark has now returned to the normality enjoyed before the COVID pandemic struck. As of midnight, the last few COVID restrictions have been abolished. Up until now, unvaccinated travelers and those coming from outside the European Union had to get a COVID test within 24 hours of arrival, but that has now been lifted.
While there are now no more COVID entry restrictions for inbound travelers, Denmark’s Foreign Affairs Ministry says there are still tools in the toolkit should the pandemic take another turn.
“The infection situation in both Denmark and abroad is still closely monitored, including in relation to new, worrying virus variants. As part of this contingency, the so-called "emergency brake" can be activated if worrying virus variants arise. The emergency brake is not currently activated for any countries.”
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COVID hospitalizations (1,220) nudged upward (+7) while the number of severe infections in an ICU (22) dipped (-4) and of those the number on a ventilator (9) crept upward (+2). Pandemic admissions to a psych ward (347) also edged up (+4)
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Denmark has reported 4,496 COVID infections (underreported), including 246 reinfections, in the last 24 hours and for a 2nd day in a row there have been no reported coronavirus deaths.
Yesterday there were 25,496 PCR corona tests equaling a positivity percentage of 17.63%.
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On the vaccination front there hasn’t been much movement with just 841 booster doses administered yesterday.
To date, 82.3% of the total population have one vaccine dose, 80.8% have two,, and 61.5% have a booster dose.
🇸🇪
Sweden only updates its COVID numbers once a week, on Thursday.
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COVID hospitalization numbers continue to slowly improve in Sweden’s capital region. There are 250 coronavirus patients in Region Stockholm hospitals, down from the 264 pandemic patients one week ago. Of those, nine are in intensive care.
Chief Physician Johan Bratt:
“We want the reduction of COVID patients in our hospitals to go even faster. We need all the resources available for regular care and to be able to deal with backlogged procedures that had to wait due to the pandemic.”
Over the last week, Region Stockholm has added 1,713 COVID infections (underreported) and suffered another 19 pandemic deaths, of which five were seniors in care. The region continues to caution that Sweden is still dealing with a backlog of processing COVID deaths.
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On Thursday, Sweden will remove the designation that coronavirus is a “socially dangerous disease.” While the agency says the pandemic will be dealt with “in a different way” it says it is ensuring that COVID infections must still be reported and contact tracing will also remain in place, especially for infection outbreaks in healthcare facilities.
Agency Director Karin Tegmark Wisell:
“Getting COVID can lead to serious illness, and even though we can now handle the pandemic in a different way than before thanks to the vaccines, it is not over. Infection tracing is needed to break infection chains in environments where people are at high risk of suffering serious consequences from an infection stay.”
Sweden’s national health agency will also publish new guidelines on how to prevent COVID infections and on contact tracing in healthcare facilities.
Amnesty/🦠/ 🇸🇪
A new report from Amnesty International is blasting the world’s richest countries for how they handled the COVID pandemic. Among them, Sweden was singled out in particular.
The organization didn’t mince words when addressing the inequalities in pandemic response and vaccinations. The report says while politicians in rich western nations made empty promises about fairness and equity in tacking the pandemic, they totally failed to walk the talk.
Secretary-General Agnès Callamard:
“At summits such as the G7, G20, and COP26, political and economic leaders delivered empty words about a policy that would lead to a paradigm shift in access to vaccines, increase investment in social safety nets, and address the effects of climate change. They did not take advantage of the opportunity, but instead fell back on a policy and practice that created deeper inequality. Members of the rich men's club made promises publicly which they then backed away from privately.”
Amnesty also blasted vaccine makers Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna for putting profits before people in rolling out life-saving vaccines. The agency says while the pharmaceutical giants saw their profits balloon to $54 billion, not even two-percent of vaccines made it to developing and low-income countries.
Amnesty also singled out Sweden for increasing gun violence, its treatment of issues involving the indigenous Sami population, and a pandemic response that succeeded in disadvantaging and excluding immigrant groups.
🇳🇴
Norway has added 2,655 infections (underreported) and had no new pandemic deaths in the last 24 hours.
COVID hospitalization numbers are still MIA.
To date, 80.3% of Norwegians 12 years old and older have one dose, 74.7% have two, and 54% have a booster dose.
🇫🇮
Finland registered 5,338 infections (underreported) and had one more corona death since yesterday’s update. Finland now has 3,055 total to date pandemic deaths as the death toll rose over the grim 3,000 lives lost milestone.
COVID hospitalizations (1,068) are unchanged. This marks a record high number if hospital admissions and the first time ever hospitalizations have exceeded 1,000 in Finland since the pandemic began.
So far, 80.1% of the total population have one dose, 76.5% have two, and 50.8% have a booster shot.
🇩🇪
Germany recorded another 237,352 infections and had 307 more pandemic deaths since yesterday’s update. The infection curve continues to creep back upward in Germany.
It reported another 2,219 COVID hospitalizations in the last 24 hours while ICU numbers (2,353) increased (+18). As a percentage of all intensive care beds in the country infection patients are using 10.7%.
To date, 76.6% of the total population have one dose, 75.9% have two, and 58.6% have a booster shot.
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Germany’s Health Minister wants a second round of COVID vaccine booster shots for everyone over the age of 60 across the entire European Union. Karl Lauterbach says another round of booster doses will save a lot of lives as the BA.2 variant drives case numbers across the EU up again.
“We must not forget that the Covid pandemic is not over in Europe. We have a very high number of cases; unfortunately we also have a very high number of deaths. As far as the pandemic is concerned, the situation in Europe is worse than people feel it is.”
The number of severe infections, hospitalizations, and pandemic fatalities across Europe lately have been concentrated among elderly seniors and those in vulnerable and high-risk groups.
Lauterbach will lobby for another round of booster doses for European seniors in Brussels this week. He says his hope is the EU Commission with the support of the European Medicines Agency, will make the recommendation to administer another round of booster shots.
🇪🇺💉
The European Medicines Agendy says another COVID vaccine has begun the rolling review process. This one is a protein-based vaccine called HIRPA or PHH-1V. It has been developed by HIRPA Human Health with the express purpose of being used as a booster dose for adults who have been fully vaccinated with another vaccine. The EMA says clinical trials showed the vaccine produced COVID antibodies roughly in line with Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine. Preliminary results also suggest the vaccine may be effective against the Omicron variant and its sub-strains. The EMA did not give a timeline for when it might render a decision on the vaccine application.
🇺🇸💉
A fourth round of COVID vaccinations has been given the green-light in the United States. The US Food and Drug Administration says another booster dose can be administered to people 50 years old and older. It says a fourth shot can be given four months after having a third dose.
As well, a fifth dose of the vaccine has also been approved for people with severely compromised immune systems.
The FDA approval for additional booster shots only covers the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
🇨🇦
Hospitalization numbers continue to drop across Canada, according to the latest snapshot from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The total number of hospital beds occupied by COVID patients in the week ending March 21, dropped by 187 to 3,990 beds being used. 3,628 of those beds were for infection patients in general hospital admissions, 114 fewer than the week before. The number of occupied intensive care beds dropped from 435 to 362 from one week to the next. And the number of people on a ventilator dropped by 32 to 170.
Canada reported 4,018 COVID infections (underreported) on Monday while suffering another 13 lives lost to the pandemic.
The national positivity percentage over the last week was 15.6%.
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The Canadian vaccination effort has so far administered 32,314,673 1st vaccine doses (84.51% of the total population) while 31,151,588 people (81.47%) have had two doses, and of those 18,088,769 are fully vaccinated with three doses.
