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On Friday, deputy health director Espen Nakstad told Dagbladet that the infection in Oslo may creep into a regional spread of the infection. City Councilman Raymond Johansen is concerned.
– Are you concerned that this could turn into a regional infection?
– Yes, Oslo is the capital and it was an epicenter, so how we manage to manage this in the future will be of great importance for how Norway handles this infection, says the Dagbladet city council leader.
Can fail
On Thursday 68 new cases were registered in Oslo. In the next few days, 54, 40, 22 and 28 were registered. On Friday, Nakstad said it will be difficult to continue the reopening with such high contagion rates.
– The spread of the infection will eventually escape Oslo and cause a regional infection if it takes too long. It is a situation we do not want, and which will make it even more difficult to reopen society, Nakstad warned in an interview with Dagbladet.
Days later, the city of Oslo introduced new measures: the prohibition of private gatherings of more than ten people, a broad recommendation on the use of masks and the maintenance of lists in restaurants.
– As long as we are in a crown situation, we should all be concerned if the numbers increase. Now they are increasing in Oslo like other big cities. So we need to introduce a series of measures now, which hopefully are perceived as balanced, to avoid introducing more serious measures at a later date, health adviser Robert Steen tells Dagbladet.
FHI vile flu inn
In its latest risk assessment, the National Institute of Public Health has announced that it will intervene if the spread of the infection reaches a regional extension. They consider the risk of regional outbreaks to be moderate.
“We believe that it is necessary to pay more attention to the danger of the transition from local outbreaks to regional outbreaks. If an outbreak in one municipality has ramifications for several others, the management is significantly complicated and therefore there is also the danger of losing control” writes FHI.
The city of Oslo has stated that around 30 percent of the infection cases recorded in Oslo have unknown infection routes. In other words, infection hunters cannot trace their way to sources of infection in one third of cases.
Cases of infection by an unknown route of infection were some of the reasons Norway introduced measures on March 12. At the time, this was said to enter a new phase of the epidemic.
– We must reduce that number as much as possible. The infection is highest in the age group 20-29 years. It is also these people who have the most active and social life, and can meet up to 250 different people. So it complicates tracking the infection, but I have experience that districts are well prepared, says Johansen.
Aging
On Saturday, Irene Teslo, Old Oslo district chief physician, told Dagbladet that the spread of the infection has also reached people in their 70s in the district. This worries Health Advisor Steen.
– In open societies, we cannot isolate the spread of infection to people in their 20s and 30s who may not get as sick. At some point, the infection is passed on to someone who knows someone older or who is in risk groups. The biggest concern is that the infection will reach the people most at risk in our city again. We want to avoid that, says Steen.
Cheer up
Councilor Johansen will encourage the population to be supportive.
– It is obvious that the elderly are more vulnerable than the younger ones. So I would again urge you to show solidarity – wear a bandage and be careful about the distance rule and hygiene and all the other things that need to be in place to reduce the spread of infection, says Johansen and continues :
– It worked last time. It will work again. But there will be less mobility than before since we are not a hermetically closed society, but fortunately a society where there is some contact between the age groups.