The Evening Report - May 5th
Denmark’s supply of shelved vaccines draws interest from other countries.
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Reuters is reporting that Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has reached out to Denmark’s Statsminister Mette Frederiksen to see if Poland can buy up Danish supplies of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Denmark dropped the vaccine earlier this week due to concerns over serious but rare side effects. However, it is also working on a scheme to allow access to the vaccine through private clinics with a doctor’s prescription.
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Residents of small Danish islands covered by Region Sjælland, Region Midtjylland, and Region Nordjylland are moving to the front of the vaccination line. The National Health Board has given the green light that island residents on Anholt, Tunø, Endelave, Orø, Fejø, Femø, Sejerø, Omø, Agersø, Askø, and Læsø can get vaccinated regardless of age.
The three health authorities involved say that vaccinating all residents in one swoop is more efficient and a better utilization of resources than having to plan for transportation, logistics, and staffing to get out to each island to get residents vaccinated each time a new age group is announced.
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Ahead of tomorrow’s further easing of restrictions in Denmark, sundhed.dk says the coronapas system is proving to be popular. It says three-million people have downloaded the MinSundhed app so far. It says the coronapas is also being checked 250,000 times per day, a number that will only increase as Denmark reopens. The coronapas is now required to attend countless venues and activities.
Sundhed.dk Director Morton Elbæk Petersen:
"It is really good that so many citizens have embraced the MinSundhed app and sundhed.dk. Apart from a few minutes of waiting time on the first day of reopening, there have been virtually no delays to access the coronapas. This indicates that people are listening to our advice.”
He advises people to only check sundhed.dk or the MinSundhed app when you need to. Anyone checking for a test result should wait for an SMS advising them a result is ready before doing so.
As of tomorrow, a coronapas is required for a restaurant, bar, or hairdresser, bars, cafes, entertainment venues, conferences, cultural venues, theaters, indoor sports, amusement parks, and cinemas.
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Denmark is reporting 988 COVID infections and one coronavirus death in the last 27 hours (27 hours is due to the data issue yesterday).
There were 513,738 total corona tests done yesterday, 186,523 PCR and 327,215 rapid, for a (PCR only) positivity percentage of 0.53%.
There is a potential warning sign on the gradually increasing infection numbers as Denmark is one of just three E.U. countries (Latvia and Lithuania are the other two) to see the number of corona cases increase week over week. Over the last seven days, the number of new infections in Denmark has increased 13% compared to the seven days prior.
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A couple of variants of concern have gained a little more ground in Denmark. The further mutated U.K. variant with the E484K mutation has increased from 19 to 25. The Staten Serum Institut says all 25 cases are on Sjælland.
In contrast, the B.1.617 variant from India has increased from 42 cases to 47 and has spread across three regions of Denmark. Most, but not all, of these infections are travel related.
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COVID hospitalizations (161) have slipped (-2), the number of infected people in an ICU (40) has also dropped (-3), and, of those, the number on a ventilator (21) also inched downward (-1).
Metro Copenhagen continues to see the highest hospitalization numbers including ICU admissions.
On the vaccination campaign to date, 1,415,117 1st dose vaccinations (24.2% of the population) have been administered while 740,184 people (12.7%) are now fully vaccinated.
Yesterday there were 52,253 total vaccinations done.
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After a two month pause, Denmark’s Staten Serum Institut is once again sharing its COVID genome sequencing information with the international community.
SSI Director Henrik Ullum says the reason they hit pause on sharing virus genome data was due to privacy concerns.
“The particular virus variants can be personally identifiable, simply because the cases are so unique, because only one or a few have had a specific variant. Therefore, after dialogue with the Danish Data Protection Agency and advice from the Chamber Advocate, we were forced to stop sharing this data with the other countries until the rules and legal basis had been clarified. It was, of course, deeply regrettable because global knowledge sharing is absolutely crucial in combating this pandemic, but we had to make sure we complied with the rules."
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In a sign that airlines believe the end of the pandemic is in sight more and more are publicly announcing a ramping up of flight activity. The most recent is Ryanair who announced yesterday it will run two aircrafts out of Billund Airport and add another nine routes as of October.
The new routes are Seville, Spain; Tallinn, Estonian; Wroclaw, Poland; Gothenburg, Sweden; Munich, Germany; Sibiu, Romania; and Brussels, Belgium. This increases to 26 the total number of destinations Ryanair will offer from Billund.
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Sweden has added 7,041 infections and another 60 corona deaths since yesterday’s update.
To date, 2,710,287 1st dose (33.1% of the population) and 775,438 2nd vaccine doses (9.5%) have been administered.
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The Stockholm region has begun the final phase of its vaccination strategy. Everyone over 18 years old will be vaccinated in phases beginning with older age groups. As of today everyone 55 to 59 years old can now book a vaccination appointment.
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Finland has registered 269 new infections and two more virus deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (130) have edged up (+2), while ICU numbers (24) are down (-5).
To date, 1,764,405 (31.6% of the population) have had one vaccine dose while 178,943 people (3.2%) are now fully vaccinated.
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Finland’s pharmaceuticals watchdog, FIMEA, has updated its report on adverse affects from COVID vaccines. It says the majority of the adverse reactions were for things you might expect like headaches, fatigue, fevers, and pain at the injection site.
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Norway added 277 infections and 10 more corona deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (109) are down (-20), ICU numbers (43) also dipped (-2), and ventilator numbers (33) inched up (+1).
To date, 25.78% of Norwegians have had one vaccine dose while 7.07% have had both.
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The latest COVID situation report in Norway shows the infection pressure continues to ease. There were 2,766 infections in week 17. That is a 14% decrease from the week prior and a drop of 58% from week 11. Infection activity is declining in all regions of the country, although Oslo still has the most COVID cases in the country. Hospitalizations are also dropping, with 66 admissions in week 17, a drop of 50% from the week previous.
The U.K. variant remains the dominant coronavirus strain in Norway. It makes up over 90% of all sequenced positive test results in the country. Norway also registered its first two cases of the Brazilian P1 variant in the last few weeks.
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Much like Denmark, as of today in Norway, people can access their vaccination status and last corona test result on the country’s health website. This is the first step toward a full vaccine passport coming in June.
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The Norwegian Public Health Institute says Google has fixed a flaw in its software used in infection tracking apps that could potentially allow user information to be accessed. The flaw was specific to android devices and Norwegian health officials say Google has informed them that they have pushed out security updates addressing the issue.
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German Health Minister Jens Spahn says over 813,000 vaccinations were administered in Germany yesterday including record 150,000 2nd doses. He says this is the third day ever in the vaccination campaign with daily inoculations exceeding 800,000.
To date, over 24.5 million people in Germany (29.5% of the population) have one vaccine dose while almost seven-million (8.3%) are fully vaccinated.
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Here is the latest snapshot from Our World in Data of how a number of countries compare so far in the global vaccination effort.
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The Financial Times has examined excess death rates across a number of countries to try and measure the true impact of how many lives the pandemic has claimed. This was done by comparing average yearly death rates prior to and since the start of the pandemic. Excess death rates often provide a more realistic number of deaths as opposed to what is officially reported by each country.
Denmark (+1%), Norway (+1%), and South Korea (no change) have all fared pretty well. For a Nordic comparison, excess deaths in Sweden are up 13%.
But for other countries the numbers are chilling. Peru saw excess deaths rise by 112%, Ecuador by 70%, and Bolivia by 66%.
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This afternoon Health Canada approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech on children as young as 12. The news was followed almost immediately by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announcing everyone in the province from 12 years old and up will be eligible to be vaccinated by Monday.
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Yesterday Canada recorded 6,689 new COVID infections while losing another 56 lives to the coronavirus.
To date, 13,140,995 1st dose vaccinations (34.58% of the population) have been administered while 1,143,239 people are now fully vaccinated.
Today Ontario’s Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted, “Ontario is reporting 2,941 cases of COVID19 and nearly 45,800 tests completed. Locally, there are 924 new cases in Toronto, 565 in Peel, 254 in York Region, 171 in Durham and 149 in Hamilton. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 5,599,723 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.“ There were also another 44 deaths.
Quebec has reported 915 infections and five deaths today. COVID restrictions in Quebec City and several other regions of the province will be lifted on Monday.
In Atlantic Canada, New Brunswick has four new infections and it has reported its first death due to blood clotting after an AstraZeneca vaccination. Newfoundland and Labrador had six infections. Nova Scotia, which remains in a lockdown, has yet to report today.
Manitoba had 291 infections and one corona death yesterday.
There were 189 infections and two more deaths Saskatchewan yesterday. The province also unveiled a roadmap for a gradual easing of COVID restrictions.
Alberta reported 1,743 infections and another nine corona deaths yesterday. 671 people are in hospital, with 150 in an ICU. A woman in her 50s has died from severe blood clotting following an AstraZeneca vaccination. Yesterday, Alberta closed all K-12 schools, reduced retailers to 10% capacity, and capped outdoor gatherings at five people among other restrictions in a bid to curb the infection rate.
B.C. registered 697 infections and one more virus death yesterday. There are 486 people in hospital with 173 in an ICU.