The Evening Report - Sept 20
Excess deaths rise in Europe. Inflation drives EU bread prices way up..
🦠Pandemic🦠
🇩🇰
Denmark’s Health Minister Magnus Heunicke says the COVID contact number, reinfection rate, or RO, is at 0.8 for a 3rd straight week.
He says after seeing infection activity increase last week, case numbers have “stabilized again”. Heunicke says this is a trend that is also reflected in COVID wastewater surveillance results, which show declining infection activity in four of the five Danish regions. The only exception is Region Syddanmark.
As for the current epidemic situation, Heunicke says seniors continue to bear the brunt of coronavirus infections. They are also the most tested population.
“That is why the booster dose campaign is so important right now.”
Since the campaign began September 15, focused on seniors in care and all seniors 85 years old and older, Heunicke says 23,231 doses have been administered. He says as of right now, 16% of all seniors in care have had a 4th dose. Currently, 5% of seniors 85 years old and older have also had a 2nd booster dose.
Here is how the booster dose campaign is faring so far by age group.
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On the vaccination front, so far, Denmark has inoculated 81.3% of the total population with one vaccine dose, 79.9% with two, 61.6% have one booster shot, and 1.3% now have two booster doses.
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The Danish National Health Board has added a legal declaration to the process of making an appointment for a COVID vaccine booster dose. A 4th dose is currently offered to seniors in care and all seniors 85 years old and older. On October 1, eligibility will expand to everyone 50 years old and older and those in high-risk and vulnerable populations. Now, when making that appointment online people will be asked to confirm they are in fact eligible for a booster dose.
Deputy Director Helene Probst:
“It is something new that we are introducing the declaration in the COVID program, but we know it from the influenza program. This makes the whole system more flexible than from previous vaccination rounds, where everyone had to wait for an invitation before they could book an appointment for vaccination.”
The health board has also issued a pamphlet to try and clear up any confusion about who can be vaccinated against influenza while also getting a COVID booster dose.
“With the pamphlet, we have created an overview of when vaccination against COVID and influenza is recommended. We must make it easy for citizens to assess whether they are in the target group for vaccination. An appointment can then be booked for one or more vaccinations at the same time.”
The declaration is legally binding when people complete it, they are confirming they are in one of the groups eligible to receive a booster dose. The agency does not say what if anything happens to someone looking to get a booster shot who knowingly declares they are eligible when they are not.
Many family doctors can also administer COVID booster doses. The health board also encourages anyone who is in doubt about whether they qualify for a fourth dose to talk to their doctor.
The Danish regions will also provide different avenues to get vaccinated depending on where people live. In some cases, a nearby pharmacy may offer a booster dose, or there could be a local pop-up vaccination site, and teams can also do inoculations on-site at senior care homes and other locations. Some may require an appointment and others could be drop-in.
You can find a map of vaccination sites around Denmark and other information (in Danish) about the booster dose campaign HERE.
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COVID hospitalizations (316) are creeping upward (+14) while the number of severely infected people in an ICU (7) has dipped (-3) and of those the number on a ventilator (1) has also edged downward (-1). Infection admissions to a psychiatric facility (61) have risen slightly (+5).
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Denmark has reported 962 infections (underreported) including 237 reinfections, and two more coronavirus deaths in the last day.
With 7,040 PCR tests taken on Monday that equals a positivity percentage of 13.66%, over seven days, the rate is 13.34%.
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Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke says while the BA.5 variant remains dominant in Denmark, a sub-variant of the sub-variant, BF.7, is seeing some growth advantage and now accounts for 11% of infection cases. He says the Statens Serum Institute is keeping a very close eye on the variant situation.
“There is a global focus on sub-variants that can have a growth advantage compared to BA.5. Currently, there are no worrying development in Denmark.”
Heunicke says that, for example, the concerning BA.2.75.2 variant was only confirmed in just 10 cases over the last four weeks.
🇸🇪
The Swedish Public Health Agency only updates its pandemic numbers once a week every Thursday afternoon.
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COVID hospitalizations are continuing to march upward in Sweden’s capital region. As of Tuesday there were 313 coronavirus patients in hospitals in Region Stockholm, which is 54 more than there were a week ago. This marks the 3rd straight week of increasing numbers of pandemic patients.
Chief Physician Johan Bratt:
“Now we have seen an increase in the number of patients with COViD who need hospital care three weeks in a row. For those who become severely infected that they need hospital care, it means they are really suffering. For the healthcare system, this means a continued high patient load where capacity is beginning to erode our efforts to deal with backlogged procedures that had been postponed during the pandemic.”
The region has five people in intensive care.
There were 1,258 confirmed infections in the last seven days (wildly underreported) and of those 68 were seniors in care.
Bratt continues to urge people to protect themselves by getting vaccinated.
“For those of you who still haven't started your vaccination, now is an excellent opportunity to do so. There are plenty of appointments to book, and some vaccination clinics also offer drop-in appointments. The vaccine is safe and provides good protection against serious infections, hospitalization, and death.”
There were also another 13 pandemic fatalities in the last week. Of those, one was a senior in care. The region continues to stress that Sweden is still struggling with a backlog of processing coronavirus deaths as it has all year.
🇩🇪
Germany recorded 60,237 infections while suffering another 145 pandemic deaths since its Monday update.
It added 1,315 COVID hospitalizations, while ICU numbers (667) were up (+20). As a percentage of all intensive care beds in the country, coronavirus patients are using 3.1%.
To date, 77.9% of the total population have one vaccine dose, 76.3% have two, and 62.1% have a booster shot.
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Germany’s Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) has recommended the use of bivalent vaccines targeting the Omicron variant or the two sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5. The independent panel of experts that advises the government recommended the updated vaccines be used as booster doses only for people 12 years old and older.
🇫🇷
French health authorities have approved the use of the two new bivalent vaccines to be used to provide booster doses across the country. The move comes after the European Commission approved the updated vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech for use in Europe. The bivalent vaccines target both the original coronavirus strain and the Omicron variant or sub-variants.
🇪🇺🦠
The COVID pandemic continues to make its presence felt across Europe. The E.U’s statistics agency EuroStat is reporting that excess mortality, the rate of deaths above the average, climbed to +16% in July, up from +7% in June. It says Spain saw the highest number of excess deaths (+37%) followed by Cyprus (+33%). Only Latvia saw no excess mortality in July.
🇪🇺💉
While United States President Joe Biden loudly declared the COVID pandemic as being over this week (spoiler alert it isn’t) Europe’s pharmaceutical watchdog is disagreeing. The European Medicines Agency says the pandemic is still very much ongoing, noting the beginning of booster dose campaigns across the E.U.
Chief Medical Officer Steffen Thirstrup:
“We in Europe still consider the pandemic as ongoing and it's important that member states prepare for rollout of the vaccines and especially the adaptive vaccines to prevent further spread of this disease in Europe.”
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The EMA has approved the pediatric Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for use as a booster dose in Europe on children five to 11 years old.
Both Pfizer and Moderna have submitted data supporting their request for approval for pediatric doses to be used as the first two doses for infants as young as six years old up to children five years old. The EMA anticipates the review will be completed by October followed by a recommendation decision.
It adds that “discussions are ongoing” for Moderna’s bivalent vaccine targeting both the original coronavirus strain and the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants. The review of the bivalent vaccine formula is expected to begin by the end of the month.
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The European Medicines Agency has recommended that both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID vaccines, including the variant specific bivalent formulas, be given full marketing authorization. During the pandemic, while both have been approved for use in Europe, it was under either an emergency use authorization and then a one-year conditional marketing authorization. The recommendation comes due to the vaccines being available for a long enough period of time and a massive amount of accrued data proving their effectiveness and safety that a full marketing authorization is earned.
🇨🇦
The Public Health Agency of Canada updates its pandemic statistics once a week every Friday afternoon.
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The Globe and Mail is reporting that the Canadian government will drop the COVIzd vaccination requirement for travelers entering the country, end random coronavirus testing, and make the ArriveCan app optional by the end of September. Citing sources, the newspaper says the changes will come into force for all land, air, and sea ports of entry by September 30.
You can read more about the story in the article HERE.
⚡️Energy Crisis⚡️
The energy crisis is a major driver of surging inflation. The price of bread in the European Union is just one example of that. According to the E.U’s statistical agency EuroStat, in August the price of bread was on average 18% higher than it was in August of last year. The agency calls this a huge increase noting that the year-over year increase from 2020 to 2021 was just 3%.
EuroStat says Hungary had the highest increase in bread prices (+66%) followed by Lithuania (+33%). France and the Netherlands had the lowest (both +10%).
🇩🇰
Slow and cumbersome. That is how Danish energy company Norlys is describing the government’s scheme to tackle soaring energy bills by allowing for a five year deferral for any increases.
Director Mads Brøgger spoke to DR:
“Realistically speaking, it could take six months before the IT systems of all the industry's more than 50 commercial electricity dealers are adapted. This means that when we are heading into the winter months we do not have the opportunity to lend a helping hand.”
Norlys has been bombarded with phone calls from customers seeking help with sky-high gas and electricity bills. The company fielded about 8,000 calls on Monday and Tuesday last week before deciding to close their phone system down after taking in another almost 4,000 calls on Wednesday.
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The Danish government recently sent out billions of kroner to try and offset the cost of rising heating bills for seniors and others on fixed or limited budgets. But now an investigation has been launched to determine if the money sent out ended up in the right hands. The Danish Parliament’s independent auditor agency is looking into the matter, according to a report from DR. It is reporting that some homeowners who didn’t qualify for the subsidy in fact received it while others who did qualify didn’t see any of the money.
🇩🇪
With Russia shutting off all gas supplies into Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline countries like Germany are scrambling to find more sources of natural gas. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has already traveled to Canada to try and secure liquified natural gas; now he is turning to the Middle East. Scholz will spend a week where he will meet with, among others, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to try and ink deals for gas supplies from the energy-rich country.
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Reports say that the German government could announce today that it has nationalized the troubled gas company Uniper. Negotiations have been going on for the last week or so to iron out details of the buyout between Germany, Uniper, and its majority shareholder Fortun, which itself has the Finnish Government as its majority shareholder. The takeover could come with a price tag in the €30 billion neighborhood according to Business Insider magazine.
Uniper has been awash in red ink since Russia cut gas supplies to Europe, forcing it to seek expensive alternative LNG supplies, which pretty much wiped out the company’s cash reserves. This was on top of already losing millions of euros due to skyrocketing gas prices over the summer. Uniper is Germany's biggest importer of gas.
🇺🇦/ 🇷🇺 War
🇷🇺/🌎
A cornered Vladimir Putin bereft of international support and facing a slough of costly defeats and embarrassments on the battlefield in Ukraine, is trying to play one of his last cards, annexation. In what is certainly a choreographed move on Tuesday, pro-Russian officials in occupied areas of Ukraine but covering areas also controlled by Ukraine, requested referendums on becoming a part of Russia. This was supposed to be backed up by a national TV address by Putin himself on Tuesday night, an address that, despite official announcements, failed to materialize. Hours after the speech was supposed to be delivered, it was announced that it had been rescheduled for Wednesday morning.
The reaction to Russia dipping into its old bag of tricks with staged referendums with a pre-determined outcome from Ukraine and the international community was swift.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense:.
The Prime Minister of Canada:
The Prime Minister of Estonia Kaja Kallas, didn’t mince words:
“Russia keeps using blackmail and illegally tries to take what doesn't belong to it. Actions like this will have the opposite effect and rally our support for Ukraine. More military aid, more sanctions against the aggressor, holding Russia accountable for its crimes.”
And perhaps the most biting response came from Lithuania’s Foreign Affairs Minister:
🇫🇮/ 🇷🇺 🇪🇺
With the Baltic states and Poland all but closing their borders to Russian citizens, Finland is now the only place where Russians can cross by land into Europe. While even it has severely restricted tourist visas to Russians, Finland is making another appeal for a European Union-wide approach to restrict travel into Europe for Russians.
Seeking to prevent Finland being used as a hub for Russians to travel to Europe the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement released on Tuesday afternoon that it has requested the E.U. Commission mandated that all European Union Schengen zone countries cancel or revoke all visas previously issued to Russians citizens while suspending all future tourist visa applications.
🇩🇰/ 🇺🇦
The Danish National Health Board says they have taken in 56 patients from Ukraine for treatment in Danish hospitals. Of those, 30 were injuries directly due to the war with Russia. Denmark has made available 200 beds for Ukrainians needing medical treatment.
The European Union has been leading a coordinated effort to facilitate the transfer and treatment of injured Ukrainian soldiers and civilians as well as those needing medical care for other medical issues.
🇩🇰/ 🇺🇦 🇷🇺
No matter how long it takes, everything must be done to investigate and document the war crimes that have taken place in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That is according to Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Jeppe Kofod who spoke to Ritzau.
“It is not possible for us to live in a global society where crimes can be committed and the victims of those crimes are deprived of even seeing that every effort is being made to collect evidence and build a case for war crimes against those responsible. It will take many years. It can have long prospects. But that does not mean that it should not be done.”
Kofod is in New York attending meetings at the United Nations. He will host an event on Thursday to continue to rally support for tracking and collecting evidence of Russian war crimes.
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Denmark has joined Sweden in filing to be an intervenor in a case between Russia and Ukraine at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Ukraine has taken Russia to court, accusing it of making false accusations of genocide against Ukraine. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it will present its interpretation of the UN Genocide Convention in order to support Ukraine.
Foreign Affairs Minister Jeppe Kofod:
“Russia's brutal assault on Ukraine must stop, and Putin's attempts to manipulate reality and abuse the genocide convention must be exposed. That is why we must support Ukraine, both in the combat zone and now here in the courtroom.”
This also marks the first time ever that Denmark has requested to enter a case between two states at the International Court of Justice.
🇬🇧/ 🇷🇺
New British Prime Minister Liz Truss is pledging even more military aid for Ukraine. Truss says that the United Kingdom will commit another £2.3 billion for military aid to Ukraine next year, while also promising that future support for Ukraine will match or exceed current efforts.
Truss, who is attending meetings at the United Nations in New York, where she says she will push to end global reliance on Russian oil and gas.
“Too many lives, in Ukraine, Europe, and the rest of the world, are being manipulated by a dependence on Russian energy. We need to work together to put an end to it once and for all.”
Only the United States has surpassed the support in funding and arms that the United Kingdom has given to Ukraine.