NIPH and the Norwegian Health Directorate disagree on whether infection control rules were violated at Vinstra – VG

On Sunday night, it became clear that 19 residents who tested negative will now be transferred to the Wadahl high mountain hotel in Gålå. This is confirmed by the mayor of Vinstra, Rune Støstad, to VG, on the way to an emergency meeting.

However, last night, four people who tested negative, including a child, had to sleep in rooms with infected people.

According to the municipal supervisor, three of these four are now being transferred to a private room at the reception, because there is a great possibility that they will develop symptoms during the period of infection. They may have been infected sleeping in a room with someone infected last night.

– She can. But they have stayed in the rooms for many days, one night from or until is not good, but not long compared to the exposure to the infection that has been. You should almost consider them positive until proven otherwise, municipal chief physician Anders Brabrand told VG early Sunday.

Brabrand says they were not moved earlier because they had to provide adequate housing.

– That was the dilemma we faced yesterday: should we start doing this unexpectedly and on short notice or should we do it well thought out and planned today and make sure it is done correctly? Then we went for the last time. I am in favor of that evaluation. He hadn’t done anything differently, in hindsight, says Brabrand.

FHI supports the municipality’s solution:

– We think they should ideally be separated, but they just had that general description last night and then they had no vacancies to move people, Petter Elstrøm at the National Institute of Public Health told VG before news of the move came in Sunday for the night.

He adds that spending one more night in the same room is probably not of much importance for the spread, as people have lived together over time, and therefore the spread of the infection has gone on for a while.

– We hope that there is a greater risk of infection if they are together over time. Therefore, it is often difficult to avoid infection within the same household.

– Shouldn’t it be based on a negative answer?

– When you have positive things in a home, you should isolate yourself and, as far as possible, avoid contact. However, it is the case that the other members of the household will already be exposed.

– Can it feel worse having to share a room with five strangers instead of your roommate?

– I absolutely understand. But I understand that it takes time for the municipality and the reception to find a solution when there are so many who are exposed and they don’t have more rooms at the reception to play.

NIPH and the Norwegian Directorate of Health disagree

The municipal superintendent acknowledged that it is a violation of infection control rules not to separate infected people from those who tested negative. But FHI believes that there are no violations, because the requirement is to distinguish the positive and the negative in a home as best as possible.

– Also in private homes there is the risk of having to sleep under the same roof at night. There are big differences in a big city where there is reserve capacity for secluded hotels and the positive aspects can carry over there quickly. But in many parts of the country, it is not possible to get a quick transfer to alternative places to live.

However, the Norwegian Health Directorate has a different opinion.

– According to covid-19 regulations, people with proven infection must be isolated. Those who are defined as close contacts should be quarantined, writes the director of the quality and courses division in the Norwegian Health Directorate, Johan Torgersen, in an email to VG.

– These are regulatory requirements that must be followed.

– Is it something you want to monitor, sanction or dialogue with the municipality about?

– The Norwegian Health Directorate will not sanction, it may depend on other authorities. The important thing now is that the municipality learns from the mistakes that have been made and follows its plans and routines. The National Institute of Public Health and the county governor can help if the municipality needs it.

The secretary general of the Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers (NOAS), Pål Nesse, believes that it is only a matter of taking a look at Finn.no to find available rooms in Vinstra to which uninfected people could have been transferred.

– You should not hunt the scapegoats, but try to find a solution. Now it looks like they’re on the verge of doing it, so that’s a good thing, says Nesse of relocating uninfected residents to hotels.

– It is positive that the Norwegian Immigration Directorate (UDI) is now trying to cover the additional costs incurred by the local community with this outbreak.

– What do you think of the fact that they have not moved before?

– This shouldn’t have happened. But when you’ve made that mistake, it’s good to see that they’re cleaning up now.

You think the situation is desperate:

– It’s very sad for the neighbors. Fear is the last thing they need to get more of, he says, adding that it is sad for the inhabitants of Nord-Fron as well.

– Nord-Fron has been very kind to refugees and asylum seekers. By September at the latest, a unanimous presidency decided to accept refugees from the Moria camp. Therefore, it is very sad that this happens to you.

Nesse believes that everyone who moves from one asylum reception center to another should undergo a test before moving.

– This should be a minimum requirement. If there is increased pressure for infection where they come from, all residents should get answers to the tests before moving in.