The Evening Report - Sept 27
Sabotage fears over pipeline ruptures. New bivalent vaccine coming to Denmark.
(Editor’s note: Informeret will take a break for the first three weeks of October due to a trip home to Canada to see friends and family.)
🚨Breaking🚨
A serious situation is unfolding in Baltic Sea. Due to this being a rapidly changing situation, I will simply put in bullet points what we know as of the moment I hit publish for this newsletter along with quotes from some officials and politicians.
There have been three gas leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that carry natural gas from Russia into Europe.
The leaks are occurring near each other in an area of the Baltic close to the Danish island of Bornholm.
The company that operates the pipeline reported significant pressure loss in the pipelines late last night and said it was investigating.
The pipeline operator says to have three leaks on the same day across different pipelines is “unprecedented.”
Swedish media outlet SVT is reporting that seismologists registered two explosions at the pipeline site several hours apart on Monday.
The National Geological Surveys for Denmark and Greenland concurred with their counterparts in Sweden confirming they too recorded shaking on the Baltic Sea floor.
“The signals do not resemble signals from earthquakes. They do resemble the signals typically recorded from blasts.”
Danish Armed Forces dispatched a pollution control vessel, a navy frigate, and air assets to the scene on Tuesday afternoon.
The Danish Armed Forces have also released this photo of the surface of the Baltic at one of the three leakage sites to give you an idea of the scale we are dealing with as gas bubbles to the surface.
Denmark’s Emergency Management Agency says at the moment there is no risk to anyone on the island of Bornholm.
“The forecasts show that concentrations of the leaking gas, which can potentially reach land, are very small and far below the limit values for health hazards. Nor is there considered to be a risk to life and health outside the safety zones at sea.”
Danish emergency and other relevant authorities have gathered in a national operations center (NOST) to discuss the incident, according to the national police force who spoke to DR.
DR Defense Analyst Mads Korsager says this signifies that authorities consider this to be a major incident.
“It says something that the incident is of such a magnitude that there is a need to coordinate efforts from a central team. There are many authorities, each of which has a task when something like this happens, and there the NOST can have the big picture.”
Denmark’s Energy and Supply Minister Dan Jørgensen says at first blush this doesn’t impact the security of supply for natural gas in Europe.
“This does not change the immediate situation regarding security of supply. The gas reserves in Europe are close to full.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen spoke to reporters Tuesday afternoon and did not rule out sabotage as the cause of the explosions and subsequent pipeline ruptures
“It is unusual, and I would like to say, that we, on the part of the government and the authorities, take it very seriously. It is too early to draw any conclusions yet; but it is an extraordinary situation, and there are three leaks; and therefore it is difficult to imagine that it could be accidental.”
But at a press conference held later on Tuesday evening, Frederiksen took a firmer stance
“These are deliberate actions, not an accident. The situation is as serious as it gets. But I'm not going to go into conjecture about who is behind it.”
Danish Energy Minister Dan Jørgensen also told reporters this was no accident.
“These are pipelines which lie at a depth of 70-90 meters. They were surrounded by 12 cm thick layers of steel and concrete.”
Denmark’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jeppe Kofod.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki took it a step further when he spoke to Reuters.
“Today we are faced with sabotage. We don't know all the details, but we clearly see that it was an act of sabotage.”
The Foreign Affairs Minister for Latvia had a blunt take.
The site of the explosions and pipeline leaks is also in an area of the Baltic Sea where a newly inaugurated pipeline running from Norway into Poland is routed.
Norway and the EU have increased security at all oil and gas sites due to suddenly rising concerns about potential sabotage.
The Danish Energy Agency has raised its emergency preparedness for the entire electricity and gas sector to its second highest level.
Denmark is beefing up its military presence around Bornholm, sending a patrol ship to join a navy frigate and pollution control vessel already on scene.
🦠Pandemic🦠
🇩🇰
Denmark’s COVID contact number has jumped. After three weeks of being at 0.8, Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke says the virus R0 has increased to 1. Anything over 1 indicates a spreading epidemic.
Heunicke says coronavirus wastewater surveillance shows virus activity is “stable” in four of the five Danish regions. The exception is Region Syddanmark, where he says COVID activity is increasing.
The health minister says the COVID incidence rate, as measured by PCR testing activity, is increasing especially among those 50 years old and older. As of this Saturday, Denmark’s booster dose campaign opens up to everyone 50 years old and older.
Heunicke says they are also seeing infection numbers rise among vulnerable seniors in care. He says this underscores the importance of getting that group a 4th dose as quickly as possible. Currently, 70% of all seniors in care have had another booster shot.
-
The Danish booster dose campaign will soon begin using the newest bivalent vaccine targeting the original coronavirus strain and the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants. Currently, inoculation efforts are utilizing the first bivalent vaccine approved for use in Europe, the one targeting the original virus and the parent Omicron strain (BA.1).
The Danish National Health Board says the new vaccine formula will begin to be distributed for vaccination efforts within a few weeks.
Deputy Director Helene Probst:
“We expect the BA.4/BA.5 updated vaccine to provide at least as good protection against serious illness and death as the already approved BA.1 updated vaccine. It is therefore our clear recommendation that you get vaccinated as soon as you have the opportunity. It may even be that the BA.4/BA.5-updated vaccine protects slightly better against becoming infected or passing on infection than the BA.1 updated vaccine, and therefore, we are phasing it into the vaccination programme.”
The health board says doses of the newest bivalent vaccine will be distributed for use as fast as they arrive and eventually will entirely replace the first generation bivalent formula. The agency expects the first doses of the new formula will begin to be used in the vaccination effort by mid-October.
-
COVID hospitalizations (384) continue to creep upward again (+8) while the number of severely infected people in an ICU (6) has also crept up (+2) and of those the number of people on a ventilator (2) inched upward as well (+1). Infection admissions to a psychiatric facility (62) also edged up (+1).
-
Denmark is reporting 1,476 new COVID infections (underreported), including 391 reinfections and four more coronavirus deaths in the last day.
With 9,189 PCR tests taken on Monday that equals a positivity percentage of 16.06%, over seven days, the rate is 16.45%. In both cases, the positivity percentages have increased.
-
According to the latest peek at the vaccination statistics published by the Statens Serum Institute, the booster dose campaign has administered 117,791 4th doses covering 2% of the total population.
-
On the COVID variant front, Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke says the BA.5 variant, and its sub-variants, remains dominant in Denmark. He says the Statens Serum Institute is keeping a close eye on the situation and is particularly vigilant to the developments of the BA.2.75, BJ.1, and BQ.1 coronavirus variants. As an example of how fast the coronavirus mutates, Heunicke says at the moment there are more than 260 COVID sub-variants out in the world.
“Currently, however, there are no worrying developments in Denmark.”
-
The Statens Serum Institute is changing how it reports COVID hospitalizations. It says by updating its methodology it will provide a more nuanced picture of the impact on hospitals the pandemic is causing. It already reports hospitalizations directly due to a coronavirus infection and those who are admitted for a non-pandemic reason but test positive. The new methodology will divide hospital admissions into three categories, admission due to infection, admission where COVID may have played a role; and hospitalization due to a non-pandemic reason.
It is important to note that patients who test positive, whether they are admitted because they are infected or not, still require a lot of hospital resources and specialized care.
🇸🇪
The Swedish Public Health Agency only updates national COVID statistics once a week every Friday.
-
COVID hospitalizations have dipped slightly in Sweden’s capital region. Region Stockholm is reporting 296 pandemic patients in the region’s hospitals. That is 17 fewer than a week ago.
There are six severely infected people in intensive care.
Chief Physician Johan Bratt says he is relieved to see a few weeks of rising hospitalizations come to an end.
“I am grateful that the increase in the number of COVID patients that we have seen in recent weeks has not continued this week. However, the decline in admissions is very small compared to the previous week; it may not signify a changing trend and we shouldn’t draw any conclusions from it. For hospitals, the almost 300 infected patients are contributing to a high burden for healthcare workers right now.”
Bratt continues to urge people to get vaccinated.
“There are still two things that are extra important. That if you have symptoms you need to stay at home and meet as few people as possible, and that you get vaccinated. There are plenty of available appointments and some vaccination clinics also offer drop-in appointments. The vaccine is safe and provides good protection against severe infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.”
In the last seven days, the region has recorded 1,345 new infections, of which 89 were seniors in care. These numbers are wildly underreported due to Sweden’s policy of only allowing access to PCR testing to seniors in care and people being admitted to hospital.
The region also suffered 13 more coronavirus deaths pushing its to-date pandemic deaths to 5,516. The region continues to remind people that Sweden continues to struggle with a backlog of reporting COVID deaths as it has all year.
🇫🇮
The Finnish Institute for Health provides its pandemic updates once a week every Thursday.
🇩🇪
Germany recorded 89,282 infections and another 118 pandemic deaths since its Monday update.
It saw 1,939 new hospitalizations, while ICU numbers (785) rose (56). As a percentage of all intensive care beds in the country, pandemic patients are using 3.6%.
On the vaccination front, 77.9% of the total population has one vaccine dose, 76.3% have two, and 62.2% have a booster shot.
🇪🇺💉
The European Medicines Agency has begun the evaluation process for Moderna’s newest bivalent vaccine. Like the Pfizer/BioNTech version already approved for use in the European Union, this one targets the original coronavirus strain and the Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5.
WHO🦠
The World Health Organization continues to raise the alarm about long-COVID as millions of people around the world struggle with coronavirus symptoms long after supposedly recovering.
Infectious Disease Epidemiologist, and WHO COVID Technical Lead, Maria Van Kerkhove says they are working to gather as much information about long-COVID as they can in order to establish better treatment methods.
“Post-COVID is a condition, also known as long-COVID. This is something that WHO and our partners are concerned about. There are some estimates that the people who are suffering from post-COVID conditions or long-COVID is in the hundreds of millions. At the end of 2021, the estimate of people suffering from this was around 144 million, and this was before Omicron was circulating. So this is something that is of significant concern to the WHO. We have been working with a variety of different types of clinicians, including pediatricians, with patient groups, to make sure that we have the appropriate recognition, research and rehab for post-COVID patients. We recently issued therapeutic guidelines for rehabilitation for people who are suffering from this. We have case definitions and data collection forms so we can collect appropriate standardized data across countries to really better understand what this is. Many people think COVID is a respiratory disease, but this disease affects the brain. It also affects the lungs, affects the circulatory system, the heart. And so we’re really just beginning to learn about not just the acute effects of what people are suffering from when they are infected and have a disease or disease course. But what happens in the longer term? So this is something that requires significant investment. We have called upon our finders to support research studies for long-COVID so that we have cohort studies established around the world, so that we can better assess what a post-COVID condition is and design the best clinical care for patients who are suffering from this.”
🇺🇦/ 🇷🇺 War
🇩🇰/ 🇺🇦
Ukrainian refugees housed in a variety of buildings providing temporary housing in Copenhagen are getting to make the move to more suitable homes. 300 Ukrainians have begun to move into a new facility in the Amager district of the city. The site will provide the refugees with a more stable home for at least the next three years.
Integration and Employment Manager Jens Kristian Lütken spoke to DR:
“It allows them a much more normal existence than what they have had so far. There are several facilities here, including a playground, and they can cook for themselves. There is also a large common room where various activities can be done.”
The city has to house at least 2,222 Ukrainian refugees. So far, they have been living with Danish families, in hotels, and in hastily refurbished nursing homes that had been closed down.
🇫🇮 🇸🇪
28 down and two to go. Finland’s Minister of Defense says the Slovakian government has voted to ratify the applications to join NATO submitted by the two Nordic nations. All 30 NATO member countries need to ratify the ascension protocols for Sweden and Finland to be admitted as full members of the military alliance.
The two countries that have yet to vote are Hungary and Turkey.
🇫🇮/ 🇷🇺
Finland’s eastern border crossings continue to be under pressure as Russians seek to flee military conscription and leave the country. The Finnish Border Agency is now publishing daily entry/exit numbers.
