[ad_1]
Closed kindergartens? “Small effect”.
Elementary schools closed? “Small effect”.
High schools closed? “Small effect”.
The Solberg government’s most costly and dramatic coronary measures, which were introduced through the advice of government infection control experts, have had little effect on the coronavirus in Norway.
This is the conclusion of government professionals at the Institute of Public Health (FHI).
The bill for society, children and the workplace has skyrocketed.
Unnecessarily long quarantine
Today, health authorities have no record of how many people have been isolated or quarantined in recent months.
- All Norwegians who have had close contact with the approx. 8,000 people who have been infected have been quarantined for 14 days. The same was true for the 129,000 Norwegians who came home after traveling abroad.
- At most hospitals, up to 9,400 employees have been quarantined for 14 days.
- Senior management of the Health and FHI Directorate was also quarantined when the crown-infected deputy health director Geir Stene-Larsen was brought home on vacation in Spain. Health Minister Bent Care Høie was quarantined due to a trip to Vienna.
“The 14-day quarantine period is unnecessarily long,” writes FHI. They think it should be shortened to 10 days.
On Thursday, the government decided to follow this advice.
– little difference
Denmark, which was a role model for Norwegian health authorities when Norway closed, has not used quarantine.
The reason why FHI thinks the 14-day quarantine has been “unnecessarily long” is as follows:
The last four days of the quarantine period, the danger of being really contagious, is very low.
FHI estimates that about 10 percent of those in quarantine are infected. The ratio is even lower for people outside the home. They claim that quarantine has been a significant burden on many people and their jobs.
Did the stricter measures have little effect?
The overall effect of the measures has been good, but it is difficult to assess the effect of the individual measures separately, says FHI. However, they present clear views on a series of measures that they consider to have little effect.
kindergartens: On March 12, the government decided that almost 6,000 kindergartens should be closed. 278,000 Norwegian children had to be at home, and their parents had to stay away from work or try to work from home.
Since April 20, it has been open for kindergartens to reopen as long as infection control measures are followed.
What was the effect of stopping the virus?
“Small”, concludes the Institute of Public Health. The consequences, on the other hand, have been “very great, including the absence of parents from work and less learning for children.”
Closed 1st to 4th class: Since March 12, 250,000 students in grades 1-4 have been home because schools were closed.
In the first weeks after Easter, Norway was the only country in the Nordic countries that kept schools closed. Return from 1st to 4th grade was allowed on April 27.
What was the contagion effect? “Small,” concludes FHI. But the ripple effects were “very big” as a result of parents who had to be away from work and students who missed school.
Closed from 5 to 10 classes: 385,000 students in grades 1-10 will return to school on Monday, May 11 after nearly two months of closing schools.
The FHI assumes that the contagion effect of closed schools for this group is small or even negative. The last assumption is justified by the fact that it can be more difficult to control what children do at home than at school.
Closed high schools: The vast majority of the 245,000 students have been held in their homes. The effect has been small or moderate, according to FHI. The consequences of learning loss are considered significant.
Closed one-to-one health services: For seven weeks, dental services were greatly reduced. Physiotherapists were not allowed to treat people.
The effect of this is believed to be small, according to FHI. However, the consequences have been great, with financial losses for companies and health losses for patients.
Of the measures believed to have a good contagious effect, particular reference is made to hygiene advice, as well as to testing and isolating the sick.
The government kept Norway closed for longer than recommended
Documents and advice that have been kept secret so far show that both FHI and the Health Directorate agreed to reopen Norway on April 29.
The government waited until May 8.
In response to an urgent assignment from Høie delivered on April 30, it appears that the Health Directorate had already advised the government to open lower primary and secondary schools in stages 5–7, high schools, secondary schools, and other educational and educational institutions .
When Norway closed on March 12, FHI recommended that the government and Health Directorate not close schools and kindergartens. The meeting notes show that the Social Security and Preparedness Directorate (DSB) and the Armed Forces considered this necessary, in part because there were “riots in the population.”
As early as March 23, professionals proposed to reopen the school for younger children in 1st through 3rd grade. Nor was that advice followed by the government, which felt that the risk of spreading the infection was still too great.
New calculations show that the spread of infection in Norway was in fact much lower than the government feared. The breeding figure in Norway, which tells how far the infection spreads, was already below 1.0 between March 17-22.
On March 24, the government decided to continue “a national day” to push the infection rate below 1.
Huge community costs
The decision to close schools has cost NOK 1.7 billion every day, according to Statistics Norway estimates.
462,000 people have had to apply for unemployment benefits on Nav until May 8, which is three times more than in 2019.
Furthermore, almost half of the hospital beds in Norway were empty due to coronary measures and emergency preparedness requirements. More than 250,000 inquiries and operations have been canceled.
Furthermore, recent Statistics Norway figures show that total industrial production in Norway has fallen dramatically.
“Strict infection control standards and employee quarantine are reported as major causes of low activity,” writes SBB.
