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COVID-19

Denmark reaches sad coronavirus milestone as 800 deaths passed

A total of five deaths with Covid-19 were registered in Denmark in the last day, bringing the country’s total loss of life to the virus to 802.

Denmark reaches sad coronavirus milestone as 800 deaths passed
Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

The State Serum Institute (SSI), the country’s infectious disease agency, meanwhile registered 1,183 new cases of the virus from 75,856 tests. There are currently 251 inpatients with Covid-19 at Danish hospitals, 4 fewer than in the previous daily update.

Those numbers are in keeping with the level of infections in the country during the last week. The test positivity rate of 1.6 is also similar to that seen in recent days.

That reflects a stable situation with the virus in Denmark currently, according to Viggo Andreasen, professor in mathematical biology and epidemiology at Roskilde University.

“The number of new cases has been slightly increasing, but not in an alarming way,” Andreasen said.

“The figure confirms the impression that the epidemic is more or less stable,” he said.

Infection numbers have been rising in Denmark throughout the autumn and have exceeded numbers reported in the spring, with the caveat that far fewer tests were conducted during the country’s first wave of the pandemic.

SSI has estimated that around 3,000 cases per day would have been registered at the beginning of April if testing had been at 70,000 tests daily at the time.

Based on that estimate, the virus was more widespread in Denmark the spring than it is now.

This also correlates with the number of hospitalised patients, which was over 500 at the peak of the spring wave and currently stands at 251, though that number is twice as high as it was a month ago.

Andreasen said he expects further increases in infection numbers in the upcoming Christmas period.

“We have Christmas ahead of us, when we’re more likely to meet with more people than usual,” he said.

“That will transfer to more infections, unless there’s a political intervention to further tighten restrictions,” he added.

READ ALSO: Denmark to mass test West Jutland residents after cases linked to mink farms

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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.” 

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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