The Evening Report - March 31st

COVID deaths drive down Swedish life expectancy

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Yesterday the Danish Institute for Public Safety closed leisure facilities and schools in Gladsaxe Kommune. Today it did the same in Halsnæs and Fredensborg kommunes, all due to rising rates of infection. Students, staff, and their families in all cases should go get tested.

The infection rates are too high in Ishøj, Brøndby, Halsnæs, Fredensborg, and Gladsaxe and Denmark’s Epidemic Commission has ruled that they cannot continue to reopen after Easter like the rest of the country. Hairdressers and the other ‘liberal professions’ in the five kommunes will have to wait until at least April 11th to open again, if the infection rates decline.

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Denmark’s Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said today that a 10th case of the Brazilian P1 corona variant has been identified. The good news is that the person was already identified through contact tracing of an existing chain of infection and was already in isolation when the variant was confirmed.

The Danish Agency for Patient Safety has found infections that are “variants of concern” in the Copenhagen district of Østerbro. At this point it is not clear if they are dealing with the Brazilian P1 or South African variant. People there are strongly encouraged to go get tested. 
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The Staten Serum Institut’s latest update has the U.K variant holding at about 93% of all sequenced positive test results.

Denmark is reporting 701 COVID infections and two more coronavirus deaths in the last day. There were 311,911 total corona tests done yesterday, 177,638 PCR and 134,273 rapid. The positivity percentage for PCR only was 0.39%.

COVID hospitalizations (218) declined (-8), the number of those infected in an ICU (43) inched up (+2), and of those on a ventilator (21) there was a slight drop (-3).

On the vaccination front, to date, 730,827 1st dose vaccinations (12.5% of the population) have been administered, while 379,555 people are now fully vaccinated.

Yesterday there were 27,473 total vaccinations done.

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The vaccination campaign in Denmark may be about to seriously ramp up. The Staten Serum Institut has updated its vaccine delivery schedule and beginning next week it looks like the flood gates will open.

Beginning in week 14 the number of Pfizer vaccine doses will almost double with over 200,000 doses arriving each week. Then, in week 16, more doses than expected of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine begin to arrive. What was expected to be 19,500 doses each week is now 38,400 one week and 67,200 the next.

Plenty of doses from AstraZeneca continue to arrive. Those, of course, go into storage pending a decision on how to use them as the vaccine remains suspended due to concerns over rare instances of post-vaccination blood clotting.

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The Southern Denmark Health Region is opening up another 24 COVID vaccination sites after Easter. You can find out where they are HERE.

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COVID numbers continue to rise again in Sweden. It has added 8,441 infections and another 35 corona deaths since yesterday’s update.

Total to date infections now exceed 800,000, by far the highest among the Nordics.

COVID deaths were so high in Sweden last year that for the first time in perhaps 100 years life expectancy in the country decreased. A study of excess mortality in Sweden found life expectancy for men decreased by 0.69 years, and by 0.40 years for women in 2020. 

As for excess mortality last year, deaths in Sweden were 8.6% higher than forecast. 

On Sweden’s vaccination campaign to date, 1,125,472 1st dose (13.7% of the population) and 486,038 2nd dose (5.9%) vaccinations have been administered.
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Sweden has extended its recommendation against all unnecessary travel outside the E.U, countries in the common trading market (EEA), and the United Kingdom until at least May 31st.
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The Swedish Public Health Agency has extended the rules governing how many people can be in stores and restaurants until May 3rd. Restaurants must close at 8:30pm and ensure social distancing. Stores and large department stores must also ensure proper distance between people, meaning occupancy is limited. Only one person from each household can go into a store. Children are exempt.

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Since yesterday’s update, Finland has registered 607 infections and 18 more virus deaths, its deadliest day since Dec 28th.

COVID hospitalizations (245) are down (-9). ICU numbers (50) are unchanged.

On the vaccination effort to date, 892,580 1st vaccination doses (16% of the population) have been administered, while 2nd dose vaccinations continue to crawl along with 88,954 people (1.6%) fully vaccinated.

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Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said today her government is withdrawing legislation seeking to restrict people’s movements and social contacts due to questions around its constitutionality. Marin is still urging people to abide by existing corona restrictions as Finland deals with a surging variant driven infection wave.

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Norway has added 1,073 infections and another 18 corona deaths since yesterday’s update.

COVID hospitalizations (295) are up (+8), ICU numbers (93) inched down (-1), and ventilator numbers (57) edged up (+2).

To date, 926,249 1st dose (12.07% of the population) and 343,705 2nd dose (5.11%) vaccinations have been administered.

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Beginning tomorrow Iceland will tighten its border controls. Anyone arriving from an area deemed a high COVID risk will face mandatory quarantine in government run facilities. The mandate will extend to children born in 2005 or later who were previously exempt from testing and quarantine rules. The cost to quarantine travelers will be ISK 10,000 ($79/€67) per room per night including meals. 

As of April 6th Iceland will allow fully vaccinated travelers from outside of Europe to skip quarantine and enter the country. 

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The number of COVID infected people in French ICUs surged past 5,000 yesterday, Numbers that high have not been seen since May 2020.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Wednesday evening that beginninf Saturday France will enter another four week COVID lockdown.

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The European Medicines Agency gave a brief update on its AstraZeneca investigation today.

“At present the review has not identified any specific risk factors, such as age, gender or a previous medical history of clotting disorders, for these very rare events. A causal link with the vaccine is not proven, but is possible.”

The agency says its recommendations on use of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be updated next week.”

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Canada reported 4,879 new infections and 26 more corona deaths yesterday as overall infection numbers continue to edge upward.

On the vaccination front, 4,922,896 1st vaccination doses (12.84% of the population) have been administered and 681,593 people are now fully vaccinated.

Variant infections are exploding across Canada. Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says in March alone, the number of variant infections increased 716%. She says the U.K. variant accounts for 92% of all confirmed variant cases. Tam adds “these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Today Ontario’s Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted “Ontario is reporting 2,333 cases of COVID19 and over 52,500 tests completed. Locally, there are 785 new cases in Toronto, 433 in Peel, 222 in York Region, 153 in Hamilton, 124 in Ottawa and 120 in Durham. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 2,192,253 doses of the COVID vaccine have been administered.” There have also been another 14 deaths. Ontario is seeing the highest ICU use in the province since the pandemic began, with 421 admitted.

Quebec has reported 1,025 new infections and nine more deaths today. The province could soon see more restrictions. Premier François Legault will hold a news conference today.

In Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador had one new infection. New Brunswick registered 14. Nova Scotia has not reported yet.

Manitoba saw 77 infections and one more corona death on Tuesday.

There were 164 infections and one death in Saskatchewan yesterday.

Alberta recorded 576 infections and another four deaths as its COVID numbers continue to trend up. Variants of concern now make up 29% of all screened positive tests.

Yesterday B.C. reported 840 infections and no new corona deaths. The number of more contagious variants continues to explode with 340 new infections involving ‘variants of concern.’ 100 of those are the feared Brazilian P1 variant.

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Clinical trials of the Pfizer vaccine on adolescents have proven effective, according to Pfizer/BioNTech in a press release today. The pharmaceutical company said the vaccine prevented symptomatic infection and was “well tolerated” in the phase three trials among young people aged 12 to 15 years old. 

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in the release that the company will submit the data and trial results to health agencies around the world as an amendment to existing emergency use authorizations. He says the hope is expanded use of the vaccine can be approved in time to inoculate kids before the next school year.