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Aarhus Festival cancelled due to coronavirus outbreak

Aarhus Festival (Aarhus Festuge), one of the longest-running summer events on the city’s calendar, has been cancelled following a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases.

Published: 13 August 2020 13:35 CEST
Aarhus Festival cancelled due to coronavirus outbreak
Aarhus Festuge in 2015. Photo: Axel Schütt/Midtjyske Medier/Ritzau Scanpix

The city’s lord mayor, Jacob Bundsgaard had previously said the event at the end of August would go ahead.

That came after a serious increase in new cases of coronavirus in the city. 364 were registered in the week prior to Wednesday.

Measures including mandatory face masks on public transport, working from home where possible and restrictions on hospital and care home visits were introduced in response.

READ ALSO: Aarhus coronavirus outbreak: here's what you need to know

Despite this, Bundsgaard previously said that the Festival, scheduled to begin on August 28th, would still go ahead.

That decision has now been reversed.

“We have been given a clear recommendation to cancel, and we will naturally comply with that,” Bundsgaard said.

The city mayor is also chair of the festival’s organising committee.

“This is the right decision in the current situation, with the epidemic still reigning over the city,” he said.

An extraordinary Aarhus Festuge board meeting was called on Monday, at which organisers discussed the situation.

“Given the clear recommendation from health authorities, the decision has been made now, rather than waiting until a planned board meeting on Friday,” Bundsgaard said.

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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.” 

READ ALSO: 

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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