The Evening Report - March 25th
Denmark’s vaccination campaign takes another blow
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Danish health authorities are keeping the AstraZeneca vaccine on the shelf as the investigation into severe blood clotting continues, causing more strife for the vaccination campaign.
Danish National Health Board Director Søren Brostrøm says it can’t be helped.
“We are very aware that a continued suspension of vaccination with AstraZeneca vaccine is delaying the Danish vaccination program. However, we have the vaccines in the refrigerator, and if we decide to restart vaccinations with AstraZeneca again, we can quickly distribute and use the vaccines.”
Brostrøm says if the vaccine is dropped entirely, people scheduled for AstraZeneca vaccinations will be offered one of the other three approved vaccines at a later date.
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Danish Medicines Agency Head Tanja Lund Erichsen says they have two more cases of severe blood clotting and low platelet counts after receiving AstraZeneca vaccinations. She says one of them has since died, which would be Denmark’s third such fatality. Erichsen says they are also investigating another death after receiving an AstraZeneca vaccination but at this point they aren’t sure if blood clotting or a low platelet count played a role or not.
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Danish Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup is worried about Denmark’s testing system facing “violent” pressure when the country begins a broader reopening after the Easter break. He is asking people to be patient. He says testing capacity across the country will be ramped up to 700,000 a day by mid-May. Hækkerup says he does not expect demand to let up until vaccinations reach a tipping point. Then he says the testing regime will shift away from being required for daily life and transition into COVID surveillance mode.
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Denmark is reporting 814 infections and another five coronavirus deaths in the last day. Numbers are beginning to creep up.
Yesterday, 312,141 total COVID tests were done, 191,462 PCR and 120,679 rapid, Measured by PCR tests only, the positivity percentage is 0.43%.
COVID hospitalizations (214) have edged down (-2), ICU numbers (44) also declined slightly (-2), and the number of people on a ventilator (29) crept up (+1).
On the vaccination front to date, 656,737 1st doses (11.2% of the population) vaccinations have been administered, while 345,070 people (5.9%) are now fully vaccinated.
Yesterday 23,246 total vaccinations were administered, which remains well below the numbers the government says are required to reach its goal to get everyone vaccinated by late July.
As of today, the Metro Copenhagen Health Authority (Region Hovedstaden) is changing the way excess vaccine doses are handed out at the end of each day. Anyone who has received an invitation to be vaccinated can now go online and sign up to be on a daily waiting list for excess doses. Region Hovedstaden says at the end of the day the oldest person(s) on the list will be called to get vaccinated, if there are any leftover doses.
Region Hovedstaden Acting Deputy Director Helene Bliddal Døssing.
"We actually have very few residual vaccines. It fluctuates between zero and 25 a day for the whole region, and until now every evening we have driven any excess vaccines to the nearest emergency hospital, which has used them to vaccinate people in the target groups.”
Anyone interested will have to sign up for a chance at excess vaccine doses every day as the list is deleted once that day’s vaccination doses are used. Anyone signing up is expected to be able to get to the vaccination center within 30 minutes of being notified. You can sign up to the daily waiting list HERE
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The Danish Agency for Patient Safety says all schools and leisure centers in the Copenhagen suburbs of Brøndby, Høje-Taastrup, Vallensbæk, and Ballerup have been closed temporarily due to high COVID infection rates in the Kommune. Students, staff, and their families should all go get tested.
The Ishøj Kommune says all schools and SFOs in the municipality have also been ordered closed “with immediate effect.” The Kommune says COVID infections are once again rising rapidly.
Denmark’s Health Minister Magnus Heunicke says the infection rate in Copenhagen is the highest in the country. He says the city and surrounding metro area have a reinfection rate of 1.2, higher than 1.1 in the rest of the country.
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Heunicke also had some more bad news on the vaccine supply chain front as Johnson & Johnson will deliver 450,000 fewer doses in April. Even though its vaccine has been approved for use in Europe, the drug maker has yet to ship a single dose to the E.U. and its first shipments are not expected to arrive until mid-April.
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Numbers in Sweden continue to rise as it added 7,706 infections and another 16 corona deaths since yesterday’s update.
To date, 1,005,559 1st dose (12.3% of the population) and 433,156 2nd dose (5.3%) vaccinations have been administered.
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Sweden’s Public Health Agency is resuming AstraZeneca vaccinations but only for those 65 years of age and up. Vaccine use for younger people will remain suspended pending investigations into cases of severe blood clotting.
Director General Johan Carlson.
“We have not seen a risk of these rare and serious side effects in the elderly. That is the reason why we are lifting the suspension of the vaccine for people over the age of 65.”
He says while the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh the risks “it cannot be ruled out that some rare cases of serious side effects may be associated with the vaccine.”
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The Swedish Public Health Agency will not extend its recommendation for partial distance and distance education for upper secondary schools. The current recommendation expires April 1st.
Department Head Britta Björkholm says that for three semesters students in upper secondary schools have been learning, in whole or in part, online. She says the detrimental effects on young people outweigh the risks of COVID in schools.
“I want to emphasize that the preventive work and measures to reduce the spread of infection in the school environment are very important. The basic advice needs to be followed, and both young people and adults need to take their responsibilities seriously.”
The Swedish Public Health Agency is recommending the use of COVID rapid tests as one avenue to mitigate infection risk as students return to the classroom.
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Finland has registered 726 infections and four more virus deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (228) are down (-5), ICU numbers (59) are also down (-3).
To date, 783,740 1st dose (14.1% of the population) and 87,803 2nd dose (1.6%) vaccinations have been administered.
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The Finnish government has proposed, pending parliamentary approval, to largely confine everyone to their own homes in five of its cities including Helsinki. It would also mandate mask use indoors and even in vehicles in some situations, all backed up with fines for non-compliance, as it battles a U.K. corona variant infection wave.
The government is warning if the infection rates in Southwest Finland continue at this rate pressure on hospitals will rise dramatically, exceeding 75% of ICU capacity. It says the much more contagious U.K. variant is spreading like wildfire and now accounts for two-thirds of all infections in the Helsinki and Uusimaa regions.
If passed, there would be restrictions on people’s movement for three weeks with the possibility of another three week extension, if needed.
People would only be allowed to leave their home for a necessary reason such as getting groceries or medicine, or for work, or school, or to walk the family dog, among some other activities. Police would enforce the restrictions on movement, handing out fines for people breaking the rules.
Children born in 2008 and up can still go outside and play with other kids.
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Norway has added 425 infections and had no new coronavirus deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (255) are down (-10), ICU numbers (81) are up (+5), and ventilator numbers (45) are down (-2).
To date, 824,447 1st dose vaccinations (10.33% of the population) have been administered while 266,765 people (4.96%) are now fully vaccinated.
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Poland has become a major COVID hot spot in Europe as infection numbers continue to rocket upward with 34,151 new infections today, the 2nd highest daily number to date. Virus deaths are also increasing. Coronavirus claimed another 520 lives in the country just today.
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Hungary remains a European COVID hot spot. It is now seeing the highest number of daily corona fatalities of the entire pandemic.
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Infections are also rising again in the Netherlands with another 7,702 today.
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There were 4,051 new infections and another 24 corona deaths reported across Canada yesterday. The infection trend is now clearly going back up.
On the vaccination front to date, 3,751,488 1st dose vaccinations (9.87% of the population) have been administered. 642,388 people are now fully vaccinated.
On the variant front, numbers in Canada remain very concerning. Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says another 70 cases of the much more contagious U.K. variant have been found along with 40 more P1 Brazilian variant infections. 30 of the P1 cases were in B.C., which leads all provinces in P1 variant numbers. Alberta continues to have the most U.K. variant infections of any province.
It was not a good day in Ontario today as infection numbers jumped significantly to numbers not seen since January. According to Health Minister Christine Elliott, “Ontario is reporting 2,380 cases of COVID and nearly 60,100 tests completed. Locally, there are 1,016 new cases in Toronto, 294 in Peel, 244 in York Region and 152 in Ottawa. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 1,755,596 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.” There were also another 17 deaths.
Quebec recorded 945 infections today and another four corona deaths. There are 496 people in hospital in the province with 117 in an ICU.
In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick had 12 infections yesterday. Nova Scotia had five. Prince Edward Island has one. While Newfoundland and Labrador again saw no new infections cases as the province eases restrictions.
Manitoba logged 81 new infections and no deaths.
There were 190 infections and one more corona death in Saskatchewan yesterday.
Alberta registered 692 infections and two more virus deaths yesterday. New infections included 202 more variant cases, which now make up 19% of active COVID infections.
Yesterday B.C. reported another 716 infections and three more deaths as its numbers continue to trend upward.
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AstraZeneca has revised its data from a U.S. study on how effectively its vaccine works against the coronavirus. It now says the vaccine has a 76% efficacy against COVID, down from the 79% it stated earlier this week. It claims the vaccine is 100% effective in with regards to severe or critical corona impacts and hospitalizations.
The revised numbers were sent out in a company news release, not as a peer reviewed report or as an official submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Earlier this week efficacy claims for its American trials were called out by U.S. oversight groups for using out-dated data.
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Two studies out of the United Kingdom this week each found that women in their 40s and 50s who survived the coronavirus were more likely to become COVID long-haulers, suffering symptoms for months afterward. One of the studies found middle aged women who suffered secondary health issues like diabetes, lung, or heart disease were more likely to suffer corona symptoms long after recovery. The other study found women under the age of 50 had higher odds of worse long-term health outcomes than men, even without underlying health conditions.