The Evening Update - March 8th
Danish Government loses testing tussle in Vollsmose
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Non-COVID news off the top. As of today Foreign Affairs Denmark says “all travel is discouraged” to Myanmar due to the ongoing coup and a deteriorating situation making the country increasingly unsafe. Further it urged Danish citizens and residents who are in the country and whose presence “isn’t strictly required” that they “should consider leaving the country while it is still possible with commercial flights.”
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Good new and bad news on the South African variant front today. Acting Academic Director at the Statens Serum Institut Tyra Grove Krause told DR today that the variant is having a hard time spreading in Denmark. She says it looks like it might be as contagious as the UK variant and existing restrictions seem to be working well to prevent it from spreading.
That said Krause also added there are chains of infections involving the South African variant where the SSI cannot identify the origin of the infection, likely pointing to some level of community transmission.
The amount of COVID testing in the Odense suburb of Vollsmose has tripled in a week. Corona testing rose from 500 last Monday to 1,519 tests administered yesterday according to the Mayor, Peter Rahbæk Juel, in a Facebook post.
“These are important steps in the right direction. However, the incidence is still worryingly high! Therefore, much will continue to be closed down in Vollsmose in the coming week.”
Juel said while people in his municipality have done a great job the battle is far from over.
“Although the vast majority in Vollsmose have been tested, all must be tested again. You must agree to be tested twice a week until the infection is significantly lower.”
Apparently the big increase in testing in Vollsmose is not good enough for the Danish government as today it tried to make COVID testing compulsory in the municipality, backed by fines for non-compliance. The move was shot down this afternoon in a legislative committee when the government was out-voted.
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Denmark is reporting 425 COVID infections and another two coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours. Since Friday it has added 1,332 infections (394 on Saturday, 513 on Sunday, and today).
With 118,000 COVID tests administered yesterday that equals a 0.36% positivity percentage.
COVID hospitalizations (234) have increased (+10) ICU numbers (38) and those on a ventilator (22) inched up (both +1).
You can see the impact vaccinations have had by looking at corona infections over the last seven days in Denmark by age in the graph below. As you can see infections for those 60 years of age and older continue to fall like a rock.
On the vaccination effort, to date 539,710 1st dose (9.2% of population) vaccinations have been administered while 203,516 people (3.5% of population) are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
To date the vaccine utilization is at 97.3%.
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The Sjælland Health Region says it has now passed 100,000 COVID vaccinations administered since the vaccination effort kicked off in Denmark on December 27th. The health authority says it can vaccinate 14,000 people per day as soon as the vaccine supply is there to do so.
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Finland has registered 459 infections and seven more coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours. Since Friday it has added 1,618 infections (648 on Saturday, 511 on Sunday, and then today).
Hospitalizations (214) are up (+13) ICU numbers inched down (-1).
On the vaccination front, to date 481,326 1st dose vaccinations (8.6% of the population) have been administered while 84,726 people (1.5% of thenpopulation) are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Finland begins a three week COVID lockdown today even as its parliament is expected to pass legislation today, it it hasn’t already done so as you are reading this, allowing the government to temporarily shut down bars, pubs, nightclubs and restaurants to curb the infection spread.
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Norway has added 1,267 infections and had no new corona deaths since Friday’s update.
COVID hospitalizations (147) are up (+8) while those on a ventilator (14) are down (-1).
On the vaccination front, to date 391,072 1st dose (7.29% of the population) vaccinations have been administered while 209,419 people (3.9% of the population) are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
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Across Europe corona numbers were largely down as is usual for Mondays. However infections in Italy ebbed only slightly as the country continues to show concerning signs of another COVID wave arriving.
Total to date COVID deaths in Italy now exceed 100,000, as it becomes the sixth nation on earth to do so.
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Another country which bucked the usual Monday lull trend was Estonia as its infection curve continues to rise sharply.
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In the United Kingdom while the Prince Harry and Meghan interview with Oprah knocked COVID right out of the headlines the country’s numbers continue to plummet. Today it reported 4,712 new infections and 65 virus deaths, the lowest number of daily fatalities since October 4th.
The number of hospitalizations also continues to drop.
To date 22,377,255 1st dose vaccinations have been administered while 1,142,643 people are now fully vaccinated.
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In Canada yesterday there were 2,489 new infections and 26 coronavirus deaths reported. While COVID deaths continue to fall daily infections remain static in the trough between infection waves.
On the vaccination front, to date there have been 1,821,470 (4.79% of population) 1st dose vaccine doses administered while 565,719 people are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
As for today in Ontario infection numbers are rocketing back up per Health Minister Christine Elliott on Twitter “Ontario is reporting 1,631 cases of COVID19 and nearly 38,100 tests completed. Locally, there are 568 new cases in Toronto, 322 in Peel and 119 in York Region. As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 912,486 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.” Stay-at-home orders in Toronto, Peel Region and North Bay were lifted today despite the rising infection numbers.
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Today Quebec reported 579 new infections and nine more virus deaths. Hospitalizations in the province stand at 590 with 108 people in an ICU. Many part of the province are being downgraded from red to orange allowing gyms to reopen and people to dine in restaurants again.
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In Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia reported no new infections, Newfoundland and Labrador had three, and New Brunswick registered five.
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There were 63 infections and one more death in Manitoba today.
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Over the weekend Saskatchewan logged 116 new infections and two more fatalities.
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Neither Alberta or B.C. have provided an update on COVID numbers since Friday.
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Rocky roll out for B.C’s hotline to arrange an vaccinations appointment for those 90 years old and older. The hotline was swamped with about 1.7 million calls despite an estimated 70,000 people being in the eligible age group.
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The U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said today that Americans who are fully vaccinated can visit indoors without a mask with others who are fully vaccinated and friends and family from a single household if they are low risk for COVID.
The CDC also now says fully vaccinated Americans who have a close contact with someone who has COVID do not need to get tested or quarantine as long as they are asymptomatic.
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The AstraZeneca vaccine may be effective against the Brazilian P1 variant, Confirming a report from Reuters from Friday, today Brazil’s Fiocruz Biomedical Institute said preliminary study results suggest the AstraZeneca vaccine can protect against the P1 variant.