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Covid-19 epidemic in Denmark ‘increases mildly’ for fourth week

Denmark has seen a mild increase in its coronavirus infections for the fourth consecutive week.

Published: 25 May 2021 14:48 CEST
Covid-19 epidemic in Denmark 'increases mildly' for fourth week
Coronavirus information at a gym in Copenhagen. photo: Philip Davali/Ritzau Scanpix

The number of daily infections with Covid-19 was under 1,000 for the fourth day in a row on Tuesday, but the R-number or reproduction rate for the virus has been calculated at 1.1, as it was in the three preceding weeks.

An R-number of 1.1 means that 10 people with the virus will pass it on to an average of 11 others, giving a mild overall increasing epidemic.

“It is the fourth consecutive week we are maintaining around the same level and that gives us a mildly increasing epidemic,” Health Minister Magnus Heunicke wrote on Twitter.

Heunicke noted a number of elements of Denmark’s current strategy against the virus which he said are helping to limit increased spread of the virus.

“Efficient vaccine rollout, intensive testing, fast contact tracing and closing off of local infection clusters are our most important weapons,” he wrote.

Latest data shows that 32 percent of the population has so far received at least a first dose of the coronavirus. Just over 20 percent have received both doses.

The R-number has a lag associated because it looks at cases which have already been confirmed, not those occurring at the current time. As such, it reflects the infection situation around 1.5 weeks ago. It is still a useful measure, however, because health authorities use it as a marker for trends in the epidemic.

A total of 794 new cases of the virus were registered in the latest daily totals to be published by the national infectious disease agency State Serum Institute (SSI).

That represents the fourth day in a row in which that figure has been under 1,000. 139,159 PCR tests were conducted, giving a test positivity rate of 0.57.

The number of Covid-19 inpatients at Danish hospitals now stands at 148, five more than on Monday.

READ ALSO: Danish engineers first to be jabbed under voluntary vaccine scheme

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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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