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Norwegians are not recommended to have guests at home until January 18. “Wait 14 days with private visits,” recommends the Norwegian Health Directorate.
Norway begins 2021 with dramatic new measures to stop the pandemic.
The Norwegian Health Directorate proposes several measures, which will be applied for at least two weeks before:
- “Avoid having guests in the house. Wait 14 days with private visits ”, recommends the Norwegian Health Directorate.
- All private events must be postponed 14 days until January 18.
- Maximum ten people at indoor events. But if you have fixed seats, it can be 200 people.
- National ban on serving alcohol.
- All universities and colleges must keep the campus closed until January 18. Until then, students should only have digital teaching when possible. The same applies to upper secondary and secondary schools.
- All unnecessary travel should be avoided, and anyone who can should use a home office.
The government will. 18.00 has a press conference. So it becomes clear whether politicians are following the new recommendations from the Norwegian Health Directorate.
But everything indicates that politicians are following most of the advice of their professionals this time.
Now various infection measures are being introduced to prevent the growth of the infection in Norway. Photo: Bjørge, Stein
Therefore, the measures are tightened
FHI estimates that between 1,200 and 400 people will be infected tomorrow, January 5.
Norway now has a reproduction figure of 1.3. This means that the pressure of infection is now as high or higher as when Norway partially closed in early November.
The proportion of positive tests is increasing.
On Dec. 28 and 29, 6.4 percent of those tested tested positive, according to NIPH.
Infection rates are also high, although the level of testing has been low over Christmas.
Are there bright spots?
Although the most important arrows are now clearly pointing in the wrong direction, there are some important bright spots, as the latest FHI weekly report shows.
Norway still has a relatively low level of infection among the elderly and the most vulnerable.
“There is a need for immediate measures to limit further spread of the infection which is expected to occur after Christmas and in connection with various activities in society starting again in the first week of January,” writes the Norwegian Health Directorate .
The NIPH and the Norwegian Directorate of Health are “concerned” that the epidemic will spiral out of control in several municipalities and regions in the next two weeks.
Behind the measures is also the fear of an increase in imported infections and the new variant of the UK virus.
From January 1 to January 10, 120 aircraft are expected from Poland and Lithuania, which have a very high level of infection.
Before the New Year, the government also introduced mandatory tests when entering Norway.
Also, vaccination has started. This increases the burden on the health service in municipalities, at the same time that they have to deal with several new outbreaks.
Only 83 of the 3108 new cases at week 52 were 80 or older.
Infection pressure is now highest in the age groups 13 to 19 years, 20 to 39 years, and 40 to 59 years.
- Stable number of patients. This is an important explanation for the fact that the number of new patients decreased somewhat at week 52 and then increased slightly during Christmas. 62 new patients were admitted in week 52, compared to 89 the previous week. In Oslo, the number of new patients has decreased for several weeks.
- Fewer deaths. 18 deaths were reported at week 52. Some more than at week 51. But death rates are still much lower than at weeks 47–50. And mortality is still much lower than this spring.
“However, it is worth mentioning that the number of admissions can increase rapidly, something we have seen recently in Denmark,” writes the Norwegian Health Directorate.
In much of Norway, there is still very little or no infection. In 182 municipalities, not a single new case was detected in week 51 or 52.
Of the 172 municipalities that reported new infections, 92 municipalities also had fewer than five cases.
But many municipalities have not reported infection rates in space during Christmas. Several municipalities report that they have capacity problems and are struggling with testing, infection tracking and quarantine measures.
