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It is necessary to close the country, as in March last year, to prevent the uncontrolled spread of the mutated virus and that it develops resistance to vaccines.
A group of professors from the medical profession believe that a new shutdown period is needed across the country. Here empty streets in Oslo after the closure in March 2020. Photo: Heiko Junge
Write a group of professors and specialists from the professional medical community in a column in VG.
– If there are no clear signs of a reduction in the spread of the virus within a few days, we believe that the Norwegian government should implement a national lockdown until the virus outbreaks have stopped in all parts of the country. Strict national measures, travel restrictions and stricter measures should be introduced at school until Easter, the article states, which is signed by Dag Jacobsen, head of department at Oslo University Hospital and professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine of the UiO.
Is not sufficient
Today, infection control measures are largely based on the ethical strategy of municipalities – testing, isolation, infection tracking, and quarantine – but that’s no longer enough, professionals believe.
Dag Jacobsen is the head of the emergency department at Oslo University Hospital. Photo: Mars Christensen
A complete closure of many sectors is necessary to achieve low enough social mobility to stop the spread.
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This means the closure also in municipalities that do not have a high infection pressure, according to the article.
– Without such stringent national measures, which must also be applied in areas with low infection rates, there is a great risk that local infection will pass “under the radar” until large outbreaks are detected, the columnists write.
– Small price to pay
Stronger levels of action across the country will also give the population a clearer message about the seriousness of the situation.
– A nationwide shutdown in a few weeks is now a small price to pay in relation to an uncontrolled spread of mutated viruses. This flourishing of the epidemic will cause many people, also in the group under 70 years, to be affected by serious diseases and death, before this part of the population has also been vaccinated. So there is also a great risk that mutated viruses have time to develop resistance to vaccines, the article states.
Columnists also include chief physician and professor Mads Gilbert of Tromsø University Hospital, international health professor Gunnar Kvåle, computer science professor Dag Svanæs, and infection control and microbiology professor Jörn Klein.
Nakstad: It wasn’t enough
Deputy Health Director Espen Nakstad said in an interview on VGTV on Friday that rising infection rates in many places show that stricter measures are needed.
Deputy Director of Health Espen Nakstad. Photo: Berit Roald
– Probably now we must simply recognize that the level of measures that we have had regarding the outbreaks in the municipalities so far in the pandemic, has not been enough, says Nakstad.
He says that “we run the risk of shutting down the whole of society” if we see trends towards a third wave of contagion, and if the measures that are being introduced now are not enough.
