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Coronavirus: Nine out of ten new Danish infections caused by Delta variant

Over 90 percent of positive coronavirus tests analysed in Denmark during the last week were caused by the more infectious Delta variant of the virus.

Published: 21 July 2021 15:36 CEST
Coronavirus: Nine out of ten new Danish infections caused by Delta variant
File photo: Philip Davali/Ritzau Scanpix

The precise figure – 90.2 percent – was published on Wednesday by the national infectious disease agency State Serum Institute (SSI).

The Delta variant was first discovered in India in October last year. It was detected in Denmark for the first time in April.

At the beginning of June it was responsible for under one percent of new positive Covid-19 tests, but its proportion has now exploded to be become the country’s dominant variant.

Delta is more transmissible than the previously dominant variant in Denmark, Alpha, which was earlier referred to as B117 or the British variant of the coronavirus.

The emergence of the Delta variant has meanwhile also prevented other potentially more infectious variants than Alpha from spreading. That includes the Gamma variant or P.1, first detected in Brazil, of which only three cases were detected in Denmark in the last week.

In addition to higher transmissibility, Delta is also considered to carry a higher risk of serious illness with the virus than earlier variants. Although vaccines work against the Delta variant, their effectiveness is considered to be lower.

A total of 851 new cases of coronavirus were detected in Denmark on Wednesday from 75,580 PCR tests, giving a test positivity rate of 1.12.

Hospitals across the county currently have a total of 55 patients admitted with Covid-19. That number has been stable during the last week.

READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Denmark R-number falls after early July increase

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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.” 

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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