The Evening Report - May 31st
Denmark might put AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson back in play
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Another vaccination calendar delay. Health Minister Magnus Heunicke has told DR the schedule to get everyone vaccinated has been pushed back another two weeks. This would move it from the end of August into mid-September.
“The vaccination calendar is delayed by about fourteen days. So we have to go all the way into September before the last ones are offered a second dose.”
Heunicke puts the blame on not getting as many vaccine doses from Moderna as promised. He says the Danish projections were also counting on the Curevac vaccine being approved for use, which it hasn’t.
Heunicke is now calling for a rethink of the decision to shelve one or both of the two vaccines that have been removed from Denmark’s vaccination program.
“The vaccination calendar will be delayed by about fourteen days. Seen in that light, we ask our health authorities to reconsider the assessment of taking Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson out of the vaccination program.”
Both Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca were punted due to concerns over rare but potentially fatal side effects, which included severe blood clotting.
DR spoke to Jan Pravsgaard Christensen, a professor at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen, who says all of this is “a little strange.” But he adds, if both of the vaccines are reinstated, it would have an immediate impact on getting the vaccination schedule back on track.
“I actually think it can quickly become part of the vaccine calendar again. We have them in stock, so we will probably see an effect of it pretty soon.”
A new assessment could come from the National Health Board in a couple of weeks.
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It keeps going up. The Danish Agency for Patient Safety says the number of COVID infections from last Monday’s football celebration in and around Brøndby Stadium has now grown to 85. But the agency is now saying that “fortunately, this indicates a limited spread of infection.” It continues to urge anyone who was there to get a corona test and then take another one 48 hours after the first.
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Denmark is reporting 844 COVID infections and no new coronavirus deaths in the last day.
Yesterday there were 401,730 total corona tests done, 110,874 PCR and 290,856 rapid, for a (PCR only) positivity percentage of 0.76%.
COVID hospitalizations (153) have increased slightly (+5) while the number of corona infected people in an ICU (34) has also inched up (+2) and of those the number on a ventilator (22) has edged up as well (+1).
On the vaccination front, to date 2,130,570 1st doses (36.4% of the population) have been administered while 1,252,184 people (21.4%) are now fully vaccinated. Yesterday there were 33,102 total vaccinations done.
The impacts of the vaccination effort continue to be reflected when looking at new infections over the last seven days. Infections continue to evaporate for those 60 and over, while new infections are concentrated among younger, unvaccinated populations, especially those 10 to 29 years old.
Get vaccinated and stop smoking. Beginning June 1st, the City of Copenhagen will offer people coming in to get vaccinated help some suppers to help them quit smoking.
In a press release, Health and Care Mayor Sisse Marie Welling said people who are interested will be offered referrals to smoking cessation programs.
“Smoking is one of the biggest health problems we have and that is why we need to help those who want to quit smoking. The vaccination sites are an opportunity to meet some of the Copenhageners who do not know the municipality's many smoking cessation offers. And then you can accept the offer if you want.”
The idea is not a new one, as Region Sjælland has been doing something similar for a few months.
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Authorities in Copenhagen are teaming up to head off loud, obnoxious parties by pent-up young people who are chafing against coronavirus restrictions. Police will increase patrols in popular party locations in the city, as well as check to make sure nightlife spots are following restrictions. Another arm of the campaign will involve posters and signage in party spots to try and raise awareness. Also on the drawing board is the creation of a Copenhagen municipal security guard service. But it requires the Danish parliament to pass legislation allowing for such a unit to be created.
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It will be at least a week between coronavirus updates from Sweden. The Swedish Public Health Authority said today while its infectious disease database, SmiNet, has been brought back online, more time is needed to get things working smoothly. It says database securities have been ramped up and “more time is needed to ensure that the statistics are complete, so that a reliable assessment of the epidemiological situation can be made.” The next update will come Thursday, one week after its last update.
SmiNet was taken offline last week after there were multiple attempts to hack into the database. The health authority isn’t saying if the hacking attempts were successful or not. Police and other Swedish authorities are investigating.
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As of today Sweden will no longer require a negative COVID test for travelers from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Iceland. Travel restrictions remain in place, including the negative test requirement, for rest of the countries in the EU/EEA until at least June 30th.
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Sweden’s vaccination program appears to be having an impact. Christian Christensen, a Journalism Professor at the University of Stockholm, has pointed out the steep decline in COVID pressure on intensive care units over the last 28 days.
Graph courtesy of @ChrChristensen on Twitter
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Since Friday’s update Finland has registered 244 infections and had eight more corona deaths. 125 infections were reported on Saturday, 63 on Sunday, and another 56 today. Overall Finland’s infection curve continues to drop.
COVID hospitalizations (95) had declined (-12) while ICU numbers (17) have also dropped (-3).
On the vaccination front, to date 2,456,153 1st dose vaccinations (44.1% of the population) have been administered while 486,433 people (8.7%) are now fully vaccinated.
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Finland has rescinded social distancing recommendations for outdoor events. The change was made when the Finnish government extended temporary provisions of the Communicable Diseases Act covering pandemic response until December 31 of this year.
As of June 1 guidelines governing social distancing will only be in force for indoor events.
While this will also make outdoor events a little easier to organize mandates around hygiene and infection control precautions will remain in place.
By extending the COVID response provisions in the Communicable Diseases Act, it allows Finnish authorities to have the power to reintroduce corona restrictions again should the situation deteriorate.
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Norway has added 770 infections and had no new virus deaths since Friday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (71) are down (-5) ICU numbers (26) are down as well (-3) and ventilator numbers (17) also dipped ( -1).
To date 30.38% of Norwegians have had one vaccine dose and 18.66% have had both.
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The EU Commission has tabled a proposal for member states to coordinate the lifting of COVID travel restrictions across member nations, in line with the introduction of the GreenPass, Europe’s digital vaccine passport.
EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders:
“A coordinated approach is essential for the internal market and also for EU citizens who would need to know what the situation is before deciding to travel, spending money, and booking holidays.Today, we are proposing that Member States coordinate this gradual lifting of free movement restrictions, taking into account our new common tool: the EU Digital COVID Certificate. We now expect Member States to make best use of this instrument and the recommendation to allow everyone to move freely and safely again.”
The EU Commission is proposing that its digital vaccine passport:
Confer immunity status on people holding a GreenPass, exempting them from travel related testing and quarantines, for those who are fully vaccinated, two weeks after a second dose. As well as for people having received a first dose, and people who have had COVID and recovered. The immunity for having had the coronavirus is judged to be 180 days.
Also exempt from travel related restrictions would be people who have had a negative test, no more than 72 hours old for a PCR test, and no more than 48 hours old if it is a rapid test.
Children traveling with parents would be exempt from quarantine if their parents meet the requirements to skip isolation mandates. Children under six years of age are exempt from travel-related testing.
The EU Commission is looking to jumpstart vaccine passport travel by urging member countries to begin issuing the digital COVID passports well before July 1 when the system is due to officially come online. To that end “the EU gateway storing the public keys needed for the verification of an EU Digital COVID Certificate” will be activated on 1 June.
As well:
EU countries are armed with an ‘emergency brake’ mechanism allowing the, to reintroduce travel restrictions as they see fit “if the epidemiological situation deteriorates rapidly or where a high prevalence of variants of concern or interest has been reported.
All other travel:
European countries would have a traffic light system. No restrictions for travelers from ‘green’ countries. Travelers from ‘orange’ countries would require a negative test before departure. People coming from ‘red’ countries would have to serve a quarantine. While travel from ‘dark red’ countries would be “strongly discouraged” with quarantine and testing requirements for any travelers.
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German Health Minister Jens Spahn says 43% of the German population about 35.75 million people have at least one vaccination dose, while 14.6 million, or 17.7% of the population are now fully vaccinated. Spahn says they are on track to get 90% of people who want a vaccine vaccinated by mid-July. The German vaccination effort has been on fire in recent weeks and it will gain even more speed as more doctors are now joining the effort to get COVID vaccines administered.
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England’s biggest vaccination centre appears to have had a glut of vaccine doses to deal with as it suddenly opened up for vaccinations to anyone over 18 today. While official NHS policy currently has only adults 30 and over on deck for vaccinations the Northwest London vaccination facility took to social media today saying “Still spaces and vaccine left: now open to all 18 and over who can get here before 7.30pm!"
The call was not ignored.
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Australian Airline Quantas is planning on offering some major vaccination incentives as it looks to lure people back to international travel destinations.
Quantas CEO Alan Joyce told an Australian TV station that vaccinated passengers could be offered flight vouchers, bonus frequent flyer points, and others things that could include special prizes being raffled off.
The incentives are largely aimed at Australians, where vaccinations have been fairly slow, with just a small percentage of the population inoculated so far.
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The World Health Organization is trying to simplify the names of a growing number of coronavirus variants of concern. The new naming system would also remove the stigma of attaching names linked to the country where a variant was first discovered. For example what was the variant formerly known as the UK variant would now be “Alpha” while the India variant is “Delta.”
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Yesterday Canada registered 2,238 infections and suffered another 34 coronavirus deaths as numbers nationally, and across the provinces to varying degrees, recede.
The decline in infection numbers is also being reflected in hospitalizations as of May 24th, the last update.
To date the National vaccination effort has administered 21,488,760 1st vaccine doses (56.54% of the population) while 1,982,686 people are now fully vaccinated.
As for Ontario today Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted “Ontario is reporting 916 cases of #COVID19 and over 18,200 tests completed. Locally, there are 226 new cases in Toronto, 165 in Peel, 85 in York Region, 67 in Durham and 52 in Hamilton. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 9,082,025 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered – a new milestone in Ontario’s vaccine rollout!” There were also 13 more deaths.
Quebec reported 276 infections and one more virus death. Today five regions of the province, including Quebec City, have been downgraded from COVID red zones to lower risk orange.
In Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador has nine infections today. New Brunswick has two. Nova Scotia has yet to report.
Manitoba saw 292 infections and seven deaths yesterday while recording 17 ICU admissions in a 24 hour period, a record daily high.
There were 171 infections and one death in Saskatchewan yesterday. On Sunday the province began the first phase of a three step reopening process.
Alberta recorded 391 infections and five corona deaths yesterday. First dose vaccinations in the province has now surpassed 60% of the adult population, one of the benchmarks toward another phase of reopening.
B.C. doesn’t report on weekends and will table numbers covering several days later this afternoon.