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COVID-19

New Danish epidemic law could be reviewed by parliament in autumn

A new law for the national response to epidemics, which is expected to be passed by the Danish parliament on Tuesday, could undergo a thorough parliamentary review later in the year after a majority of parties expressed concern over it.

Published: 22 February 2021 17:17 CET
New Danish epidemic law could be reviewed by parliament in autumn
File photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

A majority of parties outflanking the Social Democratic government wants to review the law, with the Liberal party, the largest on Denmark’s right, putting forward an amendment to the bill on Monday, newspaper Jyllands-Posten reported.

The party wants the law to be reviewed no later than October 15th.

“There could easily be irregulates here and there, and things which haven’t been picked up on. This has had a very urgent character,” the party’s health spokesman Martin Geertsen told Jyllands-Posten.

The current epidemic law was rushed through as an emergency bill in March 2020 and expires at the beginning of next month.

A number of elements of the new law have been criticised by experts, resulting in the Liberals raising concern over it. The Conservative and Danish People’s parties on the right, plus the left-wing parties Red-Green Alliance and Social Liberal party, support the proposed amendment.

The new law has been criticised for being far-reaching and lacking in safeguards for the public, including in relation to a provision allowing for state monitoring of public users of facilities like gyms and libraries.

READ ALSO: Denmark scraps provision for enforced vaccination in new epidemic bill

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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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