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Test capacity in Norway has increased tremendously in recent weeks. Therefore, according to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the list of those prioritized for screening for coronavirus disease (covid-19) is being expanded.
The extension includes everyone that a doctor suspects has covid-19, and that was not previously prioritized, FHI writes on its website.
Health Minister Bent Høie (H) said during the government’s daily press conference on Wednesday that the most vulnerable and their aides will continue to have priority.
Municipalities can expand to assess all people with symptoms if they have sufficient capacity to cover testing for everyone in the following categories:
- Those who live in nursing homes or other institutions.
- Employees in the health service with work related to the patient, people over 65 or adults with underlying diseases.
- People in quarantine due to close contact with an infected person and employees, children or pupils in an open scheme for kindergarten, school or school leisure.
– Starting today, municipalities that already have capacity can assess all people with symptoms. They can only start doing this. Others again have more of that need in place. This is especially true in some of our largest municipalities, stated the Minister of Health.
Høie adds that access to sufficient health personnel is a challenge in larger municipalities.
– In Oslo, it will probably be some time before I have the ability to evaluate everyone who meets these criteria now, but I think Oslo is working well with this and intends to do it during the month of May, which is also the case. we have said as a national objective, says Høie.
New method uses nanotechnology
The reason for the increased testing capacity is an advance that researchers at NTNU and St. Olav Hospital in Trondheim have championed.
“In record time, they have developed a method that makes the health service less dependent on reagents,” said Høie.
The new method uses nanotechnology, small magnetic spheres that extract genetic material from viruses. One of the reasons why the test capacity has not been as high as the authorities have wanted is the lack of reagents.
– This with testing is a part of the new way of working with the outbreak in the future, says Line Vold, Director of the Department of the Institute of Public Health during the press conference.
She says there are several reasons why testing them without symptoms is not advisable, in part because it can give false and positive responses.
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New scheme for freelancers
Businesses and freelancers who lose revenue after the crown eruption will be able to cover up to 80 percent of lost revenue from earnings of up to 6G.
That amounts to just over NOK 479,000, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs told Torbjørn Røe Isaksen (H) during the press conference.
– It will be possible to request the regime from Monday, May 4. Then it will be paid after April, said Røe Isaksen.
The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs also stated that Nav received an additional $ 200 million to get rid of the application stacks. He added that Nav would probably need more money eventually and warned that the processing time could be longer than usual.
– We do what is necessary to get as many people as possible out of their money as quickly as possible. But I have yet to tell people that this will require some patience, Røe Isaksen emphasized.
