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CONSUMERS

Here’s how Danish spending has fallen since coronavirus hit

Denmark's Danske Bank has released a fascinating snapshot of how consumer spending has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with grocery spending doubling during panic-buying days, and sharp declines in spending on restaurants, hotels, transport, and non-food goods.

Here's how Danish spending has fallen since coronavirus hit
Spending in restaurants is down to a third of where it would be normally. Photo: Danske Bank
Danske Bank bases its figures on data from the transactions of about a million Danske Bank customers on MobilePay, credit and debit cards, so the report is one of the first reports from Europe on how the virus has impacted spending. 
 
Louise Aggerstrøm, private economist at the bank, told The Local that the sharp falls in spending on restaurants, hotels, cinemas, clothing and transportation would have a heavy effect on the economy. 
 
“It's going to be quite massive,” she said. “It might be helped a bit but this rise in grocery spending, but that's not going to keep on going forever.” 
 
The bank plans next week to follow up the article with an assessment of how the drop in consumption might affect GDP. 
 
Aggerstrøm said that if economy starts to open up as early as expected the fall in GDP could be kept in the very low single figures.
 
“For the year I think more it will be more like one percent,” she said. “That's based on the Danish economy opening up again by May, and that's of course a big if. So if I say one percent, it's a best-case scenario.” 
 
Here's a graph of spending in supermarkets — note the big uptick on March 12 and March 17, when the government made major announcements. 
 
Spending has also increased in health and medical care. 
 
 
The fall in spending on restaurants was followed by similar falls in transport, hotels, and non-food goods. 
 

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

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People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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