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COVID-19

Weekend figures show rise in Danish coronavirus cases

A total of 207 new cases of coronavirus were registered by Danish authorities over the past weekend.

Published: 3 August 2020 16:23 CEST
Weekend figures show rise in Danish coronavirus cases
Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

The figure encompasses all tests taken between Friday and Monday morning, and comes from national infectious diseases institute SSI.

It is almost double the 109 new cases registered last Monday.

A significant proportion of the new cases are linked to an outbreak at the Danish Crown meat processing plant in Ringsted, Zealand, where 79 cases of coronavirus amongst staff have been detected since Sunday July 26th.

24 people are currently hospitalised across Denmark with Covid-19, an increase of 6 since Friday. Two are in ICU care – one less than Friday. Both are receiving ventilator treatment.

One person died with the coronavirus during the weekend, bringing the number of lives lost to it in Denmark to 616.

“We a seeing a general trend of increasing cases in Denmark. That is to be expected, because we have opened Denmark up,” Lars Østergaard, senior doctor and professor at Aarhus University Hospital Skejby, told Ritzau.

Denmark began the first phase of reopening after lockdown in mid-April and opened its borders for leisure travel to most of Europe in June.

“The spread of infection is still at a low level but since it is increasing, we are now at a good stage to be careful that we don’t get a second wave,” Østergaard said.

 

The proportionately large increase in hospitalisations over the weekend should also be seen in context, given that hospitals discharge fewer patients in general on weekends.

“The number of infected people admitted to hospital is still low, but we must also remember that there is some time between being infected and being admitted to hospital,” Østergaard said.

“The real picture of virus spread is in how many are testing positive, and we are seeing an increasing trend here,” he added.

The professor advised the public to follow the advice of health authorities to help keep the virus at a low level in Denmark.

“(The latest figures) may suggest – I’ve certainly noticed it myself – that there is some slacking off on guidelines on distance and hand hygiene, for example in supermarkets,” he said.

“These are a few, simple pieces of advice we should follow to keep the virus down,” he added.

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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.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
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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