The Evening Report - March 12th
Italy enters a third COVID wave as AstraZeneca concerns continue across the EU
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The World Health Organization said today there is no reason to stop using the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The WHO said its vaccine advisory committee was reviewing the data as it emphasized no link between AstraZeneca and blood clotting has been established.
WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris at the press conference today.
“We've reviewed the data on deaths. There has been no death, to date, proven to have be caused by vaccination. We must always ensure that we look for any safety signals when we roll out vaccines, and we must review them but there is no indication to not use it."
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The Norwegian Medicines Agency and Public Health Institute (FHI) announced today that they are investigating the death of a young health care worker after being vaccinated with AstraZeneca. However, the agencies stress the death is not blood clot related and that “it has not been concluded” that there is any link to the vaccine.
Both agencies have launched an investigation.
The Norwegian Medicines Agency says that AstraZeneca has been used in 121,820 vaccinations throughout the country. It says “as of March 9, 885 reports of suspected side effects had been received, of which 31 were serious and 854 were not very serious. No fatalities have been reported previously.”
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Today, Finland’s pharmaceutical watchdog (FIMEA) says it has received the first reports of “suspected” post vaccination blood clots. It calls the reported cases “scarce.”
FIMEA says Finland’s Institute of Health has launched a registry based investigation, compiling and cross checking vaccine side effects data across a number of agencies for reports of severe thrombosis.
Finland will continue to administer AstraZeneca vaccinations while “closely monitoring” the situation.
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In an interview with DR, Sundhedsstyrelsen (Danish National Board of Health) Director Søren Brostrøm pointed out that the reports of severe blood clotting in Denmark and Austria have been among younger people.
“It’s been Younger and basically healthy people who were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, who then had large blood clots in many different parts of the body in both the large and small blood vessels. Serious blood clot disease and, unfortunately in some cases, with fatal outcome.”
He says at this point there is no conclusive link between the blood clots and the vaccine but added due diligence is required to definitively rule out a link to AstraZeneca or “it may also be that you find something new.”
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According to Region Sjælland, the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine is impacting front line municipal workers (policemen, paramedics, etc) the most. Vaccination appointments for this target group, be they for first or second doses, have been cancelled.
It says only about 500 citizens in the region have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca. The health authority says that citizens who have appointments to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca will simply be offered the Pfizer vaccine instead.
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Denmark is reporting 645 COVID infections and three more coronavirus deaths in the last day.
Yesterday there were 232,659 total corona tests administered (167,470 PCR and 65,189 rapid tests) for a positivity percentage of 0.28%.
COVID hospitalizations (225) have crept up (+3), ICU Numbers (38) are down (-6) and the number on a ventilator (23) is unchanged. Both Metro Copenhagen and Region Sjælland (the rest of the island) continue to see the highest number of corona hospitalizations.
On the vaccination front, 576,897 1st dose vaccinations (9.9% of the population) have been administered while 232,566 people (4%) are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Yesterday there were a total of 12,833 vaccinations, a very low number.
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The Metro Copenhagen Health Authority (Region Hovedstaden) has opened up 33 satellite COVID test sites that will work alongside the seven main testing facilities. The main sites will operate from 7:00 to 22:00 while the smaller satellite testing stations will have fluctuating hours.
Region Hovedstaden says this is part of a national strategy to have a COVID testing site within 20 kilometers of all citizens. Currently Metro Copenhagen alone has a daily testing capacity of 63,000 PCR tests and another 92,000 rapid tests.
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Sweden has added 5,335 infections and another 35 corona deaths since yesterday’s update.
To date there have been 758,884 1st dose (9.3% of the population) and 335,031 2nd dose (4.1%) COVID vaccinations.
According to Radio Sweden, with just half of the promised doses being delivered to Europe by AstraZeneca in the first half of the year Sweden’s will be short 3.7 million, which could delay its goal of having everyone vaccinated by June.
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Finland, currently in the first week of a three week lockdown, has registered 706 infections and three more coronavirus deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (217) are up (+4) ICU numbers (47) are also up (+6).
To date 565,463 1st dose (10.1% of pop) and 85,826 2nd dose (1.5%) have been administered.
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Norway has added 970 infections and had no new corona deaths since yesterday’s update. It is seeing a significant U.K. variant fueled infection surge.
COVID hospitalizations (159) and those on a ventilator (21) are both unchanged.
On the vaccination front, 443,696 1st dose (8.27% of pop) COVID vaccinations have been administered while 246,961 people (4.6%) have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
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Italy is now in a third COVID wave and lockdowns will be in place across almost half of the country by Monday. Even more concerning in the last three weeks, the number of people in ICUs has shot up by 40%.
Today infections continued to increase to heights not seen in almost five months with another 26,824 while the coronavirus claimed another 380 lives.
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Corona numbers dipped slightly in the hard hit Czech Republic today as it reported 11,083 new infections and 122 deaths.
The Czech health system continues to teeter on the brink. The Health Ministry warned today that total hospital inpatient and ICU capacity is “approaching its limit.”
On AstraZeneca, Czech Health Minister Jan Blatný says there have been no reports of complications after using the vaccine so there is no reason to stop using it.
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With 9,011 new infections today, Hungary has, for the second day in a row, recorded a record high number of new infections while adding another 130 corona deaths.
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Estonia recorded 1,358 new infections today, down slightly from yesterday’s record high, while suffering another nine corona deaths.
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For a second day in Greece, infection numbers ebbed slightly with a total of 2,357. COVID claimed another 49 lives.
Schools in Greece have been closed nationwide. In addition, the regions of Halkidiki in northern Greece, Evrytania in central Greece and the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos join 18 other regions already under a tight lockdown.
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Serbia continues to be a concern with climbing infection numbers.
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The U.K. recorded 6,609 new infections and 175 virus deaths today.
A total of 23,314,525 people have now received the first vaccine dose while 1,445,078 people are now fully vaccinated.
COVID prevalence, a measurement of infection among a proportion of people over a particular time frame, has dropped to the lowest level since last September. The U.K’s Office of National Statistics says in the week of March 6th, one in 270 were infected. The previous week it was one in 220.
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In Canada yesterday there were 3,018 new infections and another 36 corona deaths.
Corona variants continue to increase in Canada. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says in the last 24 hours the number of U.K. variant infections has increased by 87 to 2,728. There are eight more cases of the South African variant, for a total of 215. The P1 variant has increased by 11 to 43 cases.
On the vaccination campaign 2,206,942 1st dose vaccinations (5.81% of the population) have been administered while 589,409 people are now fully vaccinated.
Today Ontario’s Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted “Ontario is reporting 1,371 cases of #COVID19 and over 64,600 tests completed. Locally, there are 371 new cases in Toronto, 225 in Peel, 111 in York Region and 109 in Hamilton. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 1,062,910 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.” There were 18 more deaths.
In Quebec, there were 753 new infections reported today along with nine more corona deaths. There are 550 in hospital with 106 in an ICU.
In Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia recorded one new infection as did Newfoundland and Labrador. In New Brunswick there were three new infections and one fatality.
There were 91 new infections and three more virus deaths in Manitoba yesterday.
Saskatchewan logged 165 infections with no new fatalities.
Alberta recorded 364 new infections and five more deaths yesterday.
B.C. reported 569 new infections and three more virus deaths yesterday. It has eased restrictions slightly, allowing people to meet outside with an increased social bubble of ten.