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COVID-19

New Danish Covid-19 cases back under 100: could figure be sign of downward trend?

85 new cases of coronavirus were registered in Denmark on Wednesday, the lowest daily total for nine days.

Published: 19 August 2020 18:16 CEST
New Danish Covid-19 cases back under 100: could figure be sign of downward trend?
A man wearing a face mask in Horsens earlier this week. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Wednesday’s total represents the first time since August 10th that under 100 new cases have been registered in Denmark and the lowest figure overall since the same day.

On Tuesday, 115 new infections were registered, following 123 on Monday. The three preceding days saw 165 (Friday), 104 (Saturday) and 134 (Sunday) new cases.

Of the 85 cases registered Wednesday, 15 were in Copenhagen while 13 were in Aarhus. The second city has been the focus of authorities’ attention after a recent spike in cases.

The figures come from national agency State Serum Institute (SSI).

Christian Wejse, a specialist in infectious disease at Aarhus University, told news agency Ritzau he was now less concerned about the prospect of a second wave of the coronavirus epidemic in Denmark.

“There is a clear local and general decreasing trend over a few days, and I think it will continue,” Wejse said.

“This suggests that it has been possible to get a grip on the outbreak in Aarhus,” he added.

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In addition to the decrease in new cases, the reproduction number for Covid-19 in Denmark has now fallen to an estimated 1, having been at 1.5 earlier in August.

This means that every infected person infects an average of 1 more people, compared with 1.5 people earlier in the month.

Wejse noted that this figure could increase again, however, given it lags behind the registration of new cases.

Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke also cited the reproduction number in a tweet in which he thanked “all the staff who are working hard to keep infections in check”, noting that over 2 million tests for Covid-19 have now been conducted in Denmark.

Heunicke also wrote that a reproduction number of 1 “means the total number of new daily infections is stable”.

The number of people hospitalised with coronavirus fell on Wednesday by two and now stands at 16. One of the two is in ICU care and on ventilator treatment.

No deaths from coronavirus were registered on Wednesday.

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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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