Findings in Danish long-term care facilities in the first year of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Purpose: To describe the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 infections, deaths and outbreaks among residents in Danish long-term care facilities (LTCFs) from February 2020 to February 2021.

Methods: Danish COVID-19 national register data from a newly implemented automated surveillance system was used to describe incidence rate and deaths (per 1000 residents' years), number of tests, SARS-CoV-2 infections and outbreaks among LTCF residents. A case was defined as a LTCF resident with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test.

Vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 hospitalization with the Alpha, Delta, or Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant: A nationwide Danish cohort study.

Background: The continued occurrence of more contagious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants and waning immunity over time require ongoing reevaluation of the vaccine effectiveness (VE). This study aimed to estimate the effectiveness in 2 age groups (12 to 59 and 60 years or above) of 2 or 3 vaccine doses (BNT162b2 mRNA or mRNA-1273) by time since vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 infection and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) hospitalization in an Alpha-, Delta-, or Omicron-dominated period.

Methods And Findings: A Danish nationwide cohort study design was used to estimate VE against SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 hospitalization with the Alpha, Delta, or Omicron variant.

The Hammer vs Mitigation-A comparative retrospective register study of the Swedish and Danish national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In the efforts to dampen the COVID-19 pandemic, governments are compelled to outweigh disease control efforts to the possible negative consequences of closing large parts of society. Although Denmark and Sweden are alike in political organization and health care, national responses to the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic differed noticeably. Denmark initiated a hard lock down followed by an outbreak control strategy (the so-called "hammer and dance" strategy), while Sweden's strategy was based on advising on social distancing, while keeping society open (a so-called mitigative strategy).

Preliminary report of an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in mink and mink farmers associated with community spread, Denmark, June to November 2020.

In June-November 2020, SARS-CoV-2-infected mink were detected in 290 of 1,147 Danish mink farms. In North Denmark Region, 30% (324/1,092) of people found connected to mink farms tested SARS-CoV-2-PCR-positive and approximately 27% (95% confidence interval (CI): 25-30) of SARS-CoV-2-strains from humans in the community were mink-associated. Measures proved insufficient to mitigate spread.

Restriction of non-opioid analgesics sold over-the-counter in Denmark: A national study of impact on poisonings.

Objective: Self-poisoning with non-opioid analgesics presents a growing challenge to health care providers. We aimed to assess the impact of an 18-year age restriction of OTC sales and a pack size restriction of non-opioid analgesics sold OTC in pharmacies on hospital-treated poisonings and poisoning severity measured using biomarkers.

Methods: We applied a before and after design using interrupted time series analysis.

Description and validation of a new automated surveillance system for Clostridium difficile in Denmark.

The surveillance of Clostridium difficile (CD) in Denmark consists of laboratory based data from Departments of Clinical Microbiology (DCMs) sent to the National Registry of Enteric Pathogens (NREP). We validated a new surveillance system for CD based on the Danish Microbiology Database (MiBa). MiBa automatically collects microbiological test results from all Danish DCMs.