The Evening Report - March 22nd
Some positive signs on the Danish vaccination front.
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Three months into Denmark’s mass vaccination campaign and the Danish National Health Board (Sundhedsstyrelsen) is seeing some positive signs. For those over the age of 85, most of whom are now vaccinated, it says infection rates have fallen to the lowest level among all age groups this past week.
Among nursing home residents in Denmark the health board says COVID infections have almost vanished with just one infection case in week ten. In comparison there were 446 infection cases in Danish nursing homes in the first week of January.
Hospitalization rates have plummeted for coronavirus patients over the age of 80, falling from 28% to 12% over the past two months.
Sundhedsstyrelsen Director Søren Brostrøm noted:
“It is very positive that we can now begin to see changes in the infection rates. Both among the most vulnerable in society and among those who care for the most vulnerable, namely staff in the health and elderly sector.”
The National Health Board also notes that out of 190,000 people who received their first vaccination doses more than 40 days ago, 112 have since tested positive for COVID.
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The Director of Pharmacovigilance with the Danish Medicines Agency, Tanja Lund Erichsen, said today that they are working with health agencies in Norway and the European Union on cases and deaths involving severe blood clotting and low platelets.
A link to the [AstraZeneca] vaccine is possible but has not yet been established.”
Both Denmark and Norway suffered deaths over the weekend involving people who suffered from severe blood clotting and a low platelet count after being vaccinated with AstraZeneca.
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Denmark is reporting 772 infections and two more coronavirus deaths in the last day. With 272,517 COVID tests done yesterday, 148,643 PCR and 123,874 rapid tests, the positivity percentage is 0.43%.
COVID hospitalizations (192) increased (+8), those in an ICU (42) also inched up (+2), and the number of patients on a ventilator (21) slipped down (-1).
On the vaccination effort to date, 636,664 1st dose (10.9% of the population) vaccinations have been administered while 316,068 people (5.4%) are now fully vaccinated.
The Sjælland Health Authority, the rest of the island outside of Metro Copenhagen, is planning to vaccinate 400 bedridden people in their homes this week beginning tomorrow.
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Thousands of cancer patients in Midtjylland were not included in priority group five vaccinations due to what the region called a mixture of technical issues and human error.
Region Midtjylland has said it will rectify the mistake and get the cancer patients vaccinated at a later date. That does not fly for the CEO of the Danish Cancer Society, Jesper Fisker.
“Mistakes can happen but it is not fair that those vulnerable patients continue to pay the price having to wait further to get vaccinated. The region should immediately begin vaccinations of those cancer patients. They have waited long enough now.”
He wants the health region to inform the cancer patients of their exact vaccination timeline as soon as possible. He also wants the region to make sure no one else was overlooked.
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The Asthma-Allergy Denmark group is waving a warning flag saying that COVID concerns have resulted in the number of lung function tests across the country to drop by half. The lung function test shows how much and how fast someone can breathe and is one of the most important pulmonary medical studies to diagnose and treat people with asthma. The group says the test is crucial for the 300,000 people with asthma in Denmark and for people being diagnosed. It wants testing to resume with precautions in place to reduce coronavirus risk.
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With much of the last year spent at home due to the pandemic Denmark has seen record sales of construction materials as people renovate, redesign, or add on to their homes. Today Topdanmark, a large Danish insurance company, says the surge in renovations seems to have led to some nasty surprises. It is reporting a 29% increase in house insurance claims involving rot, fungal, and insect infestations.
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Finland has registered 430 infections and three corona deaths in the last 24 hours.
Since Friday it has added 1,806 infections.
COVID hospitalizations (251) have jumped (+34). ICU numbers (35) are unchanged.
On the vaccination effort to date, 733,798 1st doses (13.2% of the population) have been administered while 87,536 people (1.6%) are now fully vaccinated.
As Finland battles an explosion of infections fueled by the U.K. corona variant, it is trying to find ways to get the message to young adults. The City of Helsinki says despite rising COVID numbers, young people continue to ignore restrictions, gather in large groups, and even fail to report all contacts to infection trackers when they get sick. The city, working with the Finnish Health Institute and Helsinki Hospital District, is teaming up with social media influencers to try to reach a younger audience and hammer the coronavirus message home .
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Norway has added 1,841 infections and one more virus death since Friday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (267) have jumped up (+31), ICU numbers (68) inched up (+2), and ventilator numbers (46) are up (+4).
On the vaccination effort to date, 768,468 1st doses (9.38% of the population) have been administered while 171,796 people (4.87%) are now fully vaccinated.
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Sweden won’t update its numbers until tomorrow.
The Swedish Public Health Agency is going to launch a national study at the end of April to try to better understand COVID infection spread. It sent out an invitation, looking for 4,500 volunteers to send in a blood sample. The samples will be analyzed for coronavirus antibodies and immune response. The results will be published in June.
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While the COVID situation in the hard hit Czech Republic gradually eases, the country’s minority government has agreed to extend the current state of emergency until April 27th. It still has to be approved by parliament.
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The European Medicines Agency says it does not support the use of ivermectin to treat COVID patients. The agency says it reviewed all available evidence in laboratory studies, observational studies, clinical trials, and meta-analyses and it “concluded that the available data do not support its use for COVID-19 outside well-designed clinical trials.”
The EMA investigated after some media reports touted the drug’s benefit in fighting COVID. It also noted both Slovakia and the Czech Republic are using it in order to treat coronavirus patients.
In the E.U. ivermectin tablets are used to treat some parasitic worm infestations in both humans and animals and an ivermectin cream can be used for skin conditions like rosacea.
The EMA says ivermectin is not approved for use to treat COVID in Europe and there are no applications currently submitted seeking that approval.
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The World Health Organization said today that global COVID vaccine inequality between rich nations and poorer ones is becoming ‘grotesque.’
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the inequitable distribution of vaccines “not just a moral outrage, it is also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating."
He said the world is on the brink of catastrophic moral failure unless urgent steps are taken to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines.
“We have the means to avert this failure. But it's shocking how little has been done to avert it. Countries that are now vaccinating younger, healthy people at low risk of disease are doing so at the cost of the lives of health workers, older people, and other at-risk groups in other countries.”
He credited vaccine maker AstraZeneca for being the only company not committed to profiting from the pandemic by licensing its vaccine technology to other companies.
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Over the weekend Canada added 6,721 infections while losing another 59 lives to the coronavirus. 3,452 infections and 26 deaths werereported on Saturday. Sunday saw 3,269 infections and 33 deaths. Overall infections continue to inch up.
On the vaccination front to date, 3,328,014 1st dose (8.76% of the population) vaccinations have been administered while 626,271 people are now fully vaccinated.
The number of coronavirus variants continues to grow in Canada. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says that since Thursday of last week, another 638 U.K. variant infections have been confirmed, pushing the total to 4,807. Another 15 Brazilian P1 variant infections were also identified. Alberta has the most U.K. variant cases, while B.C. leads all provinces with the number of P1 variant infections.
Ontario’s Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted today, “Ontario is reporting 1,699 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 31,100 tests completed. Locally, there are 500 new cases in Toronto, 318 in Peel 155 in York Region and 114 in Hamilton. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 1,553,040 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.”
Quebec registered 712 infections and suffered another 15 virus deaths today. There are 513 in hospital with 114 people in an ICU.
In Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador reported no new infections for a fourth day in a row. Yesterday Nova Scotia reported six infections. New Brunswick had one.
Manitoba recorded 90 infections and seven deaths yesterday.
There were 158 infections and one death in Saskatchewan yesterday.
Yesterday, Alberta recorded 555 new infections and two more deaths. 184 of those infections were confirmed to be U.K. corona variant marking the largest single day increase of confirmed variants in the province.
B.C. does not update its COVID stats on weekends and it will table three days worth of data later today.