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Two new results are clear, both confirming what municipal chief doctor Kjersti Gjøsund has long believed. The large corona eruption on the Halden ice rink appears to consist exclusively of mutated cases.
– The results that we see now are as expected and a confirmation of what we have believed. We’re pretty sure all 105 cases of infection are from the mutant British variant of the virus, Gjøsund tells Dagbladet.
It was in late January that Halden pushed the big red button. One by one, the positive test results came from people who had been on the ice rink.
The situation prompted strong measures by the municipality. Now, two weeks later, the municipal chief is happy that they hit the parking brake when the accident happened.
– We are very happy to have come out so hard, says Gjøsund.
Explosive infection: – Extreme situation
Municipality theory
The central question for many of the municipalities that have experienced outbreaks has been where the infection comes from. For many, the search for “patient 0” has been one of the most important tasks. Halden still has no answer to that very question.
– So far we have not been able to find “patient 0”. In that sense, we do not know how the infection entered the ice rink, but it is assumed that it already entered the room on January 20, and then spread strongly during hockey training on January 23, explains the municipal chief .
So far, no cases of infection have gone astray and the municipality believes it is in control of infection routes. Although the person or persons who brought the infection to the ice rink have not been found, Gjøsund still has an idea of how the spread has occurred.
– The outbreak has occurred in parallel in the broad teams and the elite team. We theorize that there has been an airborne droplet infection that has spread between the layers as they have entered and exited the ice. There hasn’t been an audience present in the room, but there have been trainings for both adults and children, so players, coaches and parents have been on the ice rink, he says.
Checking more
There are still answers to a handful of tests, to reveal the municipality’s theory that all 105 infected people have contracted the British mutant virus.
However, Gjøsund is aware that they will not send all the evidence for sequencing, as they consider the theory that everyone has received the mutated variant is so secure that it is not necessary.
– We will send enough people so that we have an overview and possibly can confirm that the cases of infection that have occurred are of the mutated variant. Hopefully we can learn a lot from this outbreak in hindsight, says the municipal chief.
