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COVID-19 STATS

Danish hospitals ‘beginning to feel strain’ of Covid admissions

Denmark’s health system is feeling the strain of the ongoing high Covid-19 infection rate with close to 800 people in hospital with the virus, an expert said.

A file photo of Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet. Covid-19 hospital admissions are currently just under 800 in the Nordic country, with senior medics reporting strain on hospital departments.
A file photo of Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet. Covid-19 hospital admissions are currently just under 800 in the Nordic country, with senior medics reporting strain on hospital departments. Photo: Hannah Mckay/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix

229 new admissions occurred on Monday this week. High admission numbers are offset to some extent by discharges, but the net figure for people in hospital with the virus has generally increased in recent weeks.

A small drop in the number of patients with Covid-19 at Danish hospitals was registered on Wednesday, with the 784 admitted patients 10 fewer than on Tuesday. However, the number of people in Danish hospitals with the virus was 517 on December 16th and 439 on December 1st.

It should be noted that the number can include people in hospital for unrelated reasons who test positive for Covid-19 during their stay.

“In our region we are moving patients from one hospital to another because of (capacity), and we are constantly trying to even things out between hospitals,” Kasper Karmark Iversen, senior medical consultant and professor at the University of Copenhagen and Herlev-Gentofte Hospital, told news wire Ritzau on Tuesday.

“But we are beginning to feel the strain now,” he said.

794 people were admitted to hospitals with Covid-19 at the time the comments were published.

A further 28,283 new cases of Covid-19 were registered on Wednesday, a new record for the pandemic in the Nordic country.

The record-high number of new infections was found amongst 231,270 PCR tests. That is the highest number of PCR tests administered in a day throughout the pandemic.

High infection rates are expected to continue throughout January, as outlined by SSI earlier this week.

“This is expected with the infectious variant we have and our quite open society. We must all expect to meet the virus in some context in the coming time,” Henrik Nielsen, professor and senior medical consultant at Aalborg University Hospital’s infectious diseases department, told Ritzau.

Nielsen sounded a positive note after the small decrease in the hospitalisations total on Wednesday.

“I’m choosing to see the positive side of the (recent) trend for hospital admissions to increase has not continued today. We must now see over the next week whether the peak has been reached,” he said.

READ ALSO: Denmark sets latest Covid-19 cases record amid high testing

Member comments

  1. ”It should be noted that the number can include people in hospital for unrelated reasons who test positive for Covid-19 during their stay.”

    ehh

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COVID-19 STATS

Covid-19: Danish authorities ’not concerned’ after new subvariant detected

A new subvariant of Covid-19 has been detected in Denmark. Health authorities say they are monitoring the situation.

Covid-19: Danish authorities ’not concerned’ after new subvariant detected

The new variant was first detected in India around three months ago and has now been detected in Denmark for the first time with two confirmed cases, news wire Ritzau reports.

Health Minister Magnus Heunicke confirmed the variant had been found in Denmark in a Twitter post on Saturday.

The variant, BJ.1, is a subvariant of the existing Omicron form of the coronavirus and was first registered in India on July 2nd. It has since been detected in four other countries.

“Two cases of the new Covid-19 subvariant BJ.1 have been found in Denmark,” Heunicke wrote.

“It is completely expected that BJ.1 would appear in Denmark and the State Serum Institute [national infectious disease control agency, ed.] is not currently concerned but is following the situation closely,” he said.

It is currently unclear whether BJ.1, also termed BA.2.10.1, can be expected to cause more serious symptoms than the current dominant form of Omicron.

“BJ.1 has more mutations to the spike protein than subvariants of the dominant BA.5, but the importance of these mutations is not known for certain,” Heunicke wrote.

The most recent infection trends report, issued last week by the State Serum Institute, stated that infection numbers in people aged 60 and over had increased during the preceding week. Infection numbers have been otherwise stable in all age groups in recent weeks.

Denmark currently only recommends a PCR test for Covid-19 for people at risk of serious illness who suspect they have the virus.

Last week’s infection trends report noted that BJ.1 was yet to be detected in Denmark.

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