The Evening Report - March 24th
The European Union fires a vaccine export warning shot at the U.K.
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The European Union has tightened vaccine export control measures introducing a requirement for reciprocity and proportionality into the mechanism. In essence, it means the E.U. can block vaccine exports to countries based on whether they are restricting their own vaccine or raw materials exports to Europe. The epidemiological and vaccination situation in the destination country also factor in.
In today’s press conference, E.U. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated:
“The EU is the only major OECD producer that continues to export vaccines at large scale to dozens of countries. But open roads should run in both directions. This is why the European Commission will introduce the principles of reciprocity and proportionality into the EU's existing authorisation mechanism.”
The United Kingdom was mentioned as a specific example. E.U. Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis pointed to the fact that 10 million vaccine doses have been exported from Europe to the U.K since the export control measure was originally introduced, with zero doses coming the other way.
The message seems to have been heard in the United Kingdom, as it issued a joint statement with the E.U. hours later, promising to work together for a “win win” on corona vaccinations.
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Authorities in Italy have discovered 29 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine at a manufacturing site in the country. The Italian newspaper La Stampa reported that an E.U. inspection of AstraZeneca’s Halix plant in the Netherlands raised questions about where doses produced there were going. Italian authorities were notified and the doses were tracked down. AstraZeneca had not notified the E.U. of the doses and its Netherlands plant has yet to be approved by the E.U. for production.
AstraZeneca cut its 1st quarter vaccine shipments to the E.U. to 30-million doses, about a third of what was originally promised. Today E.U. Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the company was nowhere near reaching its obligations, even on the vastly reduced number.
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Sweden is reopening its borders to Denmark and Norway again as of March 31st. A negative COVID test no more than 48 hours old is required to enter Sweden from either Denmark or Norway.
Sweden has extended its entry ban for countries outside the European Economic Area until May 31st. There are some exceptions for permanent residents or those “with family reasons.”
Foreign Affairs Denmark still advises against all unnecessary travel outside the country. Anyone returning to Denmark from Sweden also faces a mandatory quarantine.
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Denmark’s National Health Board and the Danish Medicines Agency will hold a joint press conference tomorrow at 12:15 to provide an update on the AstraZeneca situation. Vaccinations using AstraZeneca were paused on March 11th due to several cases of severe blood clotting after receiving doses of the vaccine. Two cases resulted in fatalities.
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Denmark is reporting 863 COVID infections and two more coronavirus deaths in the last day. There were 312,141 total corona tests done yesterday, 191,462 PCR and 120,679 rapid. The positivity percentage for all tests is 0.28%. For just PCR tests it is 0.43%.
COVID hospitalizations (216) have inched up (+2), ICU numbers (46) are unchanged, and the number of people on a ventilator (28) has increased slightly (+1).
On the vaccination effort to date, 647,000 1st dose vaccinations (11.1% of the population) have been administered while 331,561 people (5.7%) are now fully vaccinated.
Yesterday there were 13,995 total vaccinations, still far from the 100,000 per day goal.
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Last week 90% of all sequenced positive COVID tests in Denmark were identified as the more contagious U.K. corona variant, a slight drop from week 10.
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The Danish Agency for Patient Safety says the Oure Continuation School on Fyn has been temporarily closed “due to outbreaks.” Students, staff and their families are encouraged to go get tested.
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The Metro Copenhagen Health Authority (Region Hovedstaden) says it is preparing for an increased demand for testing after Easter as more restrictions are eased. It will open a total 84 testing stations with a daily testing capacity in the region of 160,000.
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Sweden’s infection curve is still rising fast as it added 7,659 infections and another 42 virus deaths since yesterday’s update.
To date, 984,839 1st doses (12% of the population) and 419,781 2nd vaccination doses (5.1%) have been administered.
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Finland registered 803 infections and another two corona deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (233) are down (-5) and ICU numbers (62) also inched down (-2).
To date, 759,827 1st doses (13.6% of pop) and 87,674 2nd doses (1.6%) have been done.
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Finland’s pharmaceutical watchdog FIMEA says AstraZeneca vaccinations will resume on Monday but only for those 65 years of age and older in order to minimize risk of rare cases of severe blood clotting among younger vaccine recipients. The agency says the earliest AstraZeneca vaccinations might resume more broadly will be after Easter. Investigations continue into cases of severe blood clotting to see if there is a link to the vaccine.
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FIMEA also released its latest report on corona vaccine side effects to date. The majority were to be expected like fevers, fatigue, and soreness at the injection site. For AstraZeneca, it notes five cases of thrombosis (severe blood clotting) have been reported so far.
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Norway has added 1,148 infections and seven more corona deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (265) crept up (+1), ICU numbers (76) are also up (+5), and ventilator numbers (47) slipped down (-1).
To date, 783,851 1st doses (9.65% of the population) have been administered while 307,361 people (4.89%) are now fully vaccinated.
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A day after announcing a strict 5-day national lockdown over Easter, the idea has been scrapped. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the Easter lockdown was introduced with the best of intentions of trying to curb a variant driven third infection wave.
“Nevertheless, the idea of the so-called 'Easter rest' was a mistake. I know that this entire process will trigger additional uncertainty. I deeply regret this and I ask all citizens for their forgiveness.”
This about-face does not alter the government’s announcement yesterday that the current level of restrictions will remain in place until deep into April.
Germany recorded 10,941 infections and another 290 corona deaths today.
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COVID numbers have shot up in Poland today with 29,978 new infections and 575 corona deaths. That is the deadliest day in the country since December 16th and the 2nd highest number of new infections since the start of the pandemic.
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Greece remains a European COVID hot spot with 3,058 new infections and 67 corona deaths.
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Yesterday Canada reported 3,601 new infections and 19 corona deaths as infection numbers continue to edge upward.
On the vaccination effort to date, 3,585,845 1st dose vaccinations (9.43% of the population) have been administered while 637,427 people are now fully vaccinated.
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says a total of 726 new ‘variants of concern’ have been identified in the last 24 hours. Of those, 695 are the U.K. variant pushing the total to 5,812. Another 28 P1 variant infections have been confirmed.
Both B.C. and Alberta are adding new cases of the U.K. variant at a good clip with Alberta having the most cases of the variant of any province. B.C. continues to have far and away the most P1 variant infections of any jurisdiction in Canada.
Today Ontario’s Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted, “Ontario is reporting 1,571 cases of COVID and nearly 52,000 tests completed. Locally, there are 459 new cases in Toronto, 309 in Peel and 143 in York Region. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 1,676,150 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.”
Quebec recorded 783 new infections and eight more virus deaths today.
In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick has seven new infections. Prince Edward Island two. Nova Scotia one. Newfoundland and Labrador reported no new infections again.
Manitoba logged 98 new infections and one more death yesterday.
Saskatchewan registered 150 new infections and one more corona death yesterday. It is tightening restrictions in the Regina area where infections are growing, banning all indoor private gatherings, effective yesterday and, as of this Sunday, dining indoors in restaurants is no longer allowed.
There were 465 infections and another three corona deaths reported yesterday in Alberta. Of those, 197 are ‘variants of concern’ infections, now 18% of active cases.
B.C. reported 682 new infections and one more death yesterday. The number of variant infections continues to grow.
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Infections are rising fast again in India with 53,404 today, the highest since October 23rd.
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Brazil is now the epicenter of the global COVID pandemic as it recorded 84,996 new infections and 3,251 corona deaths yesterday, the most coronavirus fatalities in the country of any day in the pandemic yet and the first time ever daily virus deaths in Brazil have ever exceeded 3,000.
A number of media outlets are now reporting Brazil’s hospital system is going through the worst collapse in the country’s history.
