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One in 10 people in Denmark has now had Covid-19 jab

One in ten people in Denmark have now received at least one dose of a Coronavirus vaccine, the country's health minister said on Sunday, claiming an important milestone on the way out of the pandemic.

Published: 14 March 2021 15:35 CET
One in 10 people in Denmark has now had Covid-19 jab
Andy Puggaard Thomsen, a 75-year-old from Gørding becomes the first in Denmark to receive the Moderna vaccine. Photo: Frank Cilius/Ritzau Scanpix

“We have reached a milestone in vaccinations,” Magnus Heunicke wrote on Twitter. “One out of every ten Danes is either totally vaccinated or has started their vaccination.

“We still need to continue working to prevent infections and to maintain good habits, but with the fourth vaccine now on the way to Denmark, it’s now taken a distinct turn in the right direction.”

The health minister’s morale-boosting tweet followed a week in when Denmark became the first country to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which it said in a worst-case might push back its vaccination programme by four weeks.

Denmark has administered more doses per capita than any of the other countries covered by The Local’s network, according to statistics collected by Our World in Data, with Norway and Switzerland just behind it. 

But the 14 doses the country has so far administered per 100,000 people still leaves it lagging far behind the UK, on 37 and Israel on 106. 

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the fourth to be used in Denmark, was approved for use in the EU on Thursday. This vaccine, unlike the previous three so far used in Denmark, required a single jab to be effective.

Denmark began its vaccination programme using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, with the Moderna and AstraZeneca jabs becoming increasingly used in recent months.

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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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