The Evening Report - Sept 14
Denmark continues to see an declining epidemic
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For a second straight week, Denmark’s COVID contact number (reinfection rate or R0) remains at 0.7. This means the country continues to see a declining epidemic rate. However, Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke warns that because of changes to testing it “makes the figure more uncertain.” But, he adds, if you look at the incidence rate and number of hospitalizations, it is clear Denmark is “in the right place.”
Heunicke also notes that “vaccination is crucial” and that a total of 12,509 vaccine booster shots have been administered to date, including 5,584 just yesterday.
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On the vaccination front to date, 4,435,512 1st doses (75.7% of the total population) have been administered while 4,307,045 people (73.5%) have been fully vaccinated.
Yesterday there were 7,662 total inoculations done and of those 1,397 were 1st doses.
It is important to note that the booster shot inoculations have not yet been incorporated into the vaccination statistics by the Staten Serum Institut. So, as noted by the health minister above an additional 5,584 third-dose vaccinations were done yesterday.
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Denmark’s National Board of Health says it will continue to find ways to reach young people who have not yet begun the vaccination process. The health board has already reached a deal with the Salling Group to offer vaccination opportunities in Bilka and Fotex stores across the country.
Unit Manager Niels Sandø says the initiative has seen some success.
"It is incredibly positive that we have had 386 people vaccinated through this pop-up offer in selected supermarkets. It is another great effort from our partners in municipalities, regions, and retail, which has helped to increase support for vaccination against COVID. At the same time, the results show that there are still citizens who want to be vaccinated when we remove barriers and improve access.”
The health board has also slightly expanded the age group where they are seeing lagging vaccination rates from those 20 to 29 years of age to 20 to 34 year olds. In order to continue to try and bolster vaccination rates among younger people, pop-up sites are now being set up at concerts and other cultural events. 51 people were vaccinated at the recent Minds of 99 show in Copenhagen. And pop-up vaccination sites will also be found at the SPOT Festival in Aarhus this week. People can walk in to Music House between 3 to 8pm on September 17 and get vaccinated without needing an appointment.
Sundhedsstyrelsen is also in talks with other organizers to find ways to have vaccination sites at the other cultural events in the coming weeks.
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Some help from Denmark is on its way to New Zealand. The Danish government reached a deal to send the country 500,000 surplus Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses. The vaccine doses have been loaded up and are now winging their way to New Zealand.
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Denmark is reporting 425 COVID infections and no new coronavirus deaths in the last day.
Yesterday, there were 96,696 total corona tests done, 51,922 PCR and 44,774 rapid, for a (PCR only) positivity percentage of 0.82%.
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COVID hospitalizations (117) have fallen (-8) while the number of infected people in an ICU (30) is unchanged day to day and of those, the number on a ventilator (20) crept upward (+1).
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The third booster vaccine dose is causing problems for some people in Denmark looking to travel aboard. The Danish Health and Medicines Authority says when a third vaccine dose is entered into the system, it somehow causes information about the first dose to disappear. This is impacting both the coronapas and the online vaccination portal at Sundhed.dk.
From the release issued by the agency earlier today:
“It can present challenges if you have to travel to countries that only consider citizens to be fully vaccinated after a certain period after the second bite. As the first vaccination is not currently displayed, it will appear in the passport that the final vaccination has only taken place quite recently.”
It says the problem is being worked on and they hope to have a fix by the end of the week. In the meantime, for any impacted travelers, they are advised to check the entry rules for the country they are headed to. If they are in a jam, the agency advises getting a PCR COVID test to enable the EU digital certificate and get you on the plane to your destination.
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A high school student “with a foreign background” is at risk of being kicked out of the country after falsifying a negative test in order to attend classes. DR East Jutland has obtained court documents about the case. It reports the student, who is not being identified, not even by gender or age, is expected to plead guilty to forgery. The case falls under a special COVID section of the penal code, which dramatically increases the punishment for crimes related to the pandemic. Depending on how the court sentences the young person, they could be at risk of being deported.
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Sweden has added 5,138 infections and another 27 corona deaths since its Thursday update.
To date, 7,037,966 1st doses (82.4% of the population 16 years old and older) and 6,221,380 (72.8%) 2nd vaccine doses have been administered.
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The number of coronavirus infections continues to increase in Sweden’s capital region, albeit at a slower rate. There were 2,196 COVID cases last week in Region Stockholm, compared to 2,097 the before.
The region says there are 123 people in hospital and another 13 lives were lost in the last week. It stresses that 90% of all hospitalizations in the last few weeks are people who are unvaccinated or who have just one vaccine dose.
Infection Control Doctor Maria Rotzén Östlund sounds exasperated:
“I can not repeat this enough that the most important thing to avoid serious illness, and in the worst case death, is to get fully vaccinated. There are times to book. We try in different ways to make it easier to get vaccinated. There is drop-in vaccination sites in several places in Stockholm and vaccine buses that go to areas where the vaccination rate is lower. The only way we can reverse that trend is to increase the pace of vaccination. There are still too many who are not vaccinated at all.
Study after study across multiple countries found that the risk of hospitalization and death dramatically increases for people who are unvaccinated. The positivity percentage in Region Stockholm was 4.6% last week.
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Hospitals in Region Uppsala will return to normal operations tomorrow. The hospitals had been operating under a COVID “reinforcement mode” allowing it to allocate staff under a sort of state of emergency. However, Health and Medical Care Director Mikael Köhler spoke to SVT and stressed that the danger is not over yet. In fact, COVID hospitalizations in the region have increased recently to numbers not seen in many weeks.
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In its latest update, Region Skåne says the number of coronavirus infections decreased slightly last week. The decreases were seen across all age groups.
However, Infection Control Doctor Eva Melander says the number of hospitalizations is up. Melander says, as seen elsewhere, the majority of people being admitted are unvaccinated. She says it is important that people get vaccinated and that if they have symptoms they should stay home.
The region says demand for vaccinations has fallen sharply. Vaccine Coordinator Maria Landgren says the dramatic drop in demand could result in vaccine doses getting thrown away due to their limited shelf life.
“The fluctuations in demand and the vaccine's built-in best-before date make the planning complicated. Throughout the vaccination effort, we have had regular dialogue with the suppliers to avoid accruing large amounts of doses, but it has not been possible to avoid completely.”
Landgren warns that outreach efforts may also increase vaccine waste. Vaccines are delivered in large amounts of doses, which will have to be broken down and then transported to each pop-up site.
“We do what we can to minimize waste and redirect deliveries when possible. Using vaccines with limited shelf life for a third dose for certain designated groups is currently not possible.”
The region has so far had to throw away about 9,000 vaccine doses.
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Finland has registered 454 new infections since yesterday’s update.
So far, 4,081,680 1st vaccine doses (72.9% of the population) have been done, while 3,153,281 people (56.5%) have been fully vaccinated.
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The Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has eased COVID restrictions on bars and restaurants. Opening hours will be extended and rules on the sale of alcohol will also be relaxed beginning Thursday in regions deemed to be in acceleration or spreading phases in Finland’s three-tiered COVID alert model.
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The Finnish government has tabled a new COVID testing and contact tracing strategy. YLE is reporting the new system will be more targeted, directed at people who have been exposed to the coronavirus, unvaccinated people with symptoms, and those who are vaccinated but at higher COVID risk.
Fully vaccinated people will be a lower testing priority under this new regime, but they will have access to COVID home tests.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is trying to sell the change as a better allocation of resources after the previous testing regime required too much personnel and resources.
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Finland’s pharmaceutical watchdog, FIMEA, has brought in more staff in order to examine around 11,000 cases of reported vaccine side effects. The agency is emphasizing the claims at this point have not been proven to be linked to vaccinations; hence the point of giving them a closer look.
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Norway has added 1,236 infections and two more virus deaths since yesterday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (105) have dropped (-22) the number of infected people in intensive care units (37) is also down (-2) and of those the number on a ventilator (19) also declined slightly (-1).
So far, 73.71% of Norwegians have had one vaccine dose and 64.21% have had both doses.
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The Norwegian Institute of Public Health says the 4th infection wave is receding. The NIPH says infection numbers have declined since September 6 when daily COVID numbers reached a record-high of 1,780 coronavirus infections. The agency anticipates the infection curve will continue to drop.
Director Geir Bukholm spoke to NRK and credited high vaccination uptake, mass-testing, and restrictions helped bend down the infection curve. He also says Norway’s soaring vaccination uptake has helped protect everyone.
“This is a trend we are seeing now, but it is important that we keep up the momentum and see that it is a trend that continues. We are seeing hints of a decrease in infection among the unvaccinated, and it is an effect of having so many vaccinated people buffering them from exposure.”
While infections fall, the bad news is hospitalizations are rising. The NIPH expects those numbers to level off in the next week.
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The BBC is reporting that the UK will launch a COVID vaccine booster shot campaign. Britain’s Health Secretary Sajid Javid has informed the House of Commons that the government will follow through on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization booster dose recommendation. This means all adults 50 years old and over will get a third dose along with frontline health workers, seniors in residential care, people 16 to 49 years old with underlying health conditions, people who are immunocompromised, and their family members.
The UK plans on using Pfizer/BioNTech as the third booster shot regardless of what someone’s first two doses were. A third vaccine dose can only be administered a minimum of six months after a second vaccination.
It is also worth noting that UK health officials are expressing concern about the usual respiratory viruses making a return. They warned COVID lockdowns kept them at bay, but at the cost of waning immunity, especially in young children. The NHS says the RS virus “is already circulating at very high levels.” And that the seasonal flu could also take off.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced what he called a “winter plan” to deal with the coronavirus. His plan ‘A’ begins next week and includes booster shots, ventilating indoor spaces, encouraging outdoor socializing, and using a mask in crowded indoor settings.
A plan ‘B’ includes mandatory face mask use, vaccine passports, working from home, and possibly more lockdowns.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone into isolation after several of his close associates tested positive for COVID. It is unclear how long he will remain in quarantine.
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Canada’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Teresa Tam warned today that the number of infections and hospitalizations is continuing to grow, especially among young adults. Tam also cautions that with 7.1 million Canadians who could have been vaccinated but aren’t, there are too many vulnerable people and “too many opportunities for the virus to spread.”
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Canada is reporting 5,349 infections and another 40 coronavirus deaths yesterday. Alberta remains the epicenter of this latest wave, while other provinces seem to be rounding the peak.
The Canadian vaccination effort has so far administered 28,350,691 1st vaccine doses (74.46% of the total population) while 26,081,569 people (68.50%) are fully vaccinated.
In Ontario today there were 577 new infections, of which 452 were among unvaccinated people or those who had just one dose. Of the 363 people in hospital, 325 were either not vaccinated or had one shot. Of the 192 people in an ICU, that number is 183.
Quebec registered 633 coronavirus infections and another seven deaths today.
In Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia is putting the brakes on its phase 5 reopening plan after reporting 66 new infections, the highest daily number since May. New Brunswick has 35, with almost all of them among unvaccinated people. Newfoundland and Labrador has not yet reported.
Manitoba saw 56 new infections today.
For the first time ever, daily infections exceeded 500 in Saskatchewan today as the province recorded 506 new COVID cases.
Alberta logged 4,740 infections and another 18 deaths over the last three days. There are 803 people (+117) in hospital, highest since January, with a record-high 202 people (+31) in an ICU. Of the hospital admissions, 605 are unvaccinated or have a single dose, while in the ICU 90.4% are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
B.C. reported 1,984 infections and nine more deaths over a three day period covering the weekend. The province has now mandated all health workers must get vaccinated as a condition of employment. No vaccine, no job.