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Deputy Health Director Espen Rostrup Nakstad from the Norwegian Health Directorate responded to questions from Dagbladet readers about the coronavirus this morning.
One reader wondered:
– If people travel home for Christmas, meet family and socialize with friends without taking precautions, what can happen then? What is the worst case?
– What we fear that will happen is that you run the risk of infecting many if you come from an area with a lot of infection. But the opposite can also happen, that you get infected at Christmas because you are with many people at a time when there is a lot of infection in society, says Nakstad.
And continues:
– Limiting the number of people you meet in different settings will be important in the coming weeks, also at Christmas. That doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate Christmas, but it may not be this Christmas where you have to meet up with all your friends and go out every night.
May cause increased infection
– What do the Norwegian Health Directorate and the authorities fear?
– You may get a growing infection after Christmas as a result of many people having met many in your family at Christmas. What’s a bit troublesome about meeting family and friends is that you know them well, so there are a lot of hugs.
– What worries us the most at Christmas is that many of the risk groups are with younger relatives and relatives. Therefore, there are many people who are at high risk of becoming seriously ill if they become infected.
– If it takes off at Christmas, can we get to a situation where we go back to how we were in March and April?
– I think it will take a little more than that, but I think we can have a setback if the infection is high, everyone goes home and has a lot of contact with the family at Christmas.
– How strong can the backhand be?
– If many travel and visit many people, and many return from abroad after Christmas with the infection, it can affect the infection statistics after Christmas.
– For Norway, this will be a disaster.
Travel if you are healthy
– If you travel home for Christmas, what exactly should you do?
– What you need to do in particular is to make sure that the week before Christmas you do not plan many gatherings of friends where you know there may be a risk of infection. And then it is important to travel only if you are healthy.
– If you travel by car, there is little risk of infection. If you are traveling by public transport or plane, you should follow the infection control rules that apply and wear a bandage if there is congestion.
– What shouldn’t you do at all at Christmas?
– Go home at Christmas if you are sick. You must wait until the test is done and you have recovered. And then you shouldn’t break quarantine if you’re quarantined before Christmas. Although it is very tempting to break it up and go to a Christmas party, you shouldn’t. You should come together digitally, toast your family digitally, and have fun with them later on Christmas or New Years.
Signs of failure
Boquillas in March
– Why do masks help now and not in March, when the corona pandemic reached Norway?
– Yes, the masks probably would have helped in March if everyone had started using them in public space. But at the time it was not known how much infection was in the community, at least not in early March. There was also a severe shortage of infection control equipment around the world, so if 5.4 million people in Norway started using bandages in March, there would not be enough bandages to use in hospitals.
– The reason it was not recommended in the summer is because there was very little infection in Norway.
Vaccine Skeptics
– When vaccines arrive in Norway, are you first in line for vaccines to set a good example?
– Here is a group of experts who analyze what vaccines we should offer, how good they are and who should receive them first, so this is a good system. So we all have to follow that system, and we depend a lot on getting good information about vaccines, so that we know what is documented by the effect and what kind of side effects have been found.
– Then we can evaluate for ourselves if we believe that the vaccine is safe, effective and if we want to take it.
– What do you think of people who are skeptical of vaccines?
– It is very understandable that many are skeptical about it, and there have been some experiences with vaccines in the past that make people skeptical. But the thing to keep in mind is that the vast majority of vaccines that have been developed in the world, and that you get as a child, have been tested incredibly well in many millions of people.
– The problem when it comes to new vaccines is that we depend on testing them in many people to show that they are safe and effective.
Transportation home for Christmas
– Is it recommended to bring family members home in a private car at Christmas?
– I think it is totally possible to travel by public transport safely if you plan it well. On trains, there are often seats and not many people are standing in the compartment as it is on the subway during rush hours.
– It is very possible to travel safely, but it may be a good idea to wear a bandage, and if there is congestion, you may be able to wear it. (…) The closer to Christmas Eve, the bigger the crowd. If you spread it out a bit and travel a little earlier if you get the chance, then it can provide more space and less risk of infection.
New infected in Norway
At midnight on Thursday night, 34,268 people infected with corona were registered in this country. There is an increase of 551 reported cases since Wednesday night.
There are 17 more cases than the day before, preliminary figures from the National Infectious Disease Notification System (MSIS) show.
116 corona patients were hospitalized on Wednesday. There were twelve less than the day before.
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A total of 316 corona-infected people have died in Norway since March, preliminary figures show. It is not always possible to establish whether patients have died from or with COVID-19.
63.6 percent of all deaths have reached the age of 80. In the age group under 50 years, eight deaths have been reported in Norway.
