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The total number of infections now stands at 75 infected in Sarpsborg and 137 in Fredrikstad. On Sunday, 25 new corona infections were found in Sarpsborg, while Fredrikstad’s figure is five new cases of infection. In total, the number of infections has exceeded 200.
Almost 1,000 people were still under quarantine in Fredrikstad on Sunday, NTB reported, while Sarpsborg’s number was 571 people. In both places, the eruption of the crown is linked to the Muslim celebration in Skjeberg last week.
– The five cases of infection on Sunday can be attributed to this outbreak, communications manager E claim A. Fjellstad in Fredrikstad municipality told NTB.
Applied but rejected late
Director Sadiq Baker Alezairjawi of the Shiite religious community Al-Ghadir Islamic Center in Østfold tells Dagbladet that the congregation sent a request to the Sarpsborg municipality in advance to hold meetings at the Skjeberg facility in connection with the Ashura holiday.
Sarpsborg Mayor Sindre Martinsen Evje (Labor Party) tells Dagbladet that the room is not approved for a meeting room. The property is originally a semi-detached house with garage and workshop.
– And if it had been approved, it would have been for only 20 people. We understand that there were 170 people gathered there.says the mayor.
The director says that there were between 110 and 130 people in the house that day.
– We sent a request to the municipality of Sarpsborg before the big feast on August 29 during the holiday ashura. The rejection of the municipality occurred on September 2. We used the house on August 29 because the lease in Fredrikstad for the old meeting place had expired, says Alezairjawi.
He says that he and several others in the congregation who have been diagnosed with the COVID-19 infection have not realized that they are infected.
– That’s what’s scary. Many of our members who have been diagnosed with the infection have not noticed anything. In this sense, we ourselves are victims. It must have come from somewhere, the director tells Dagbladet.
Review evaluation
Sarpsborg’s mayor says they are considering whether to denounce the Muslim congregation.
– We must make an assessment of whether the organizer of this event has behaved in a reprehensible way. If a violation of the Infection Control Act is proven, we should consider a review, the mayor tells TV 2.
Deputy Health Director Espen Rostrup Nakstad tells VG and NRK that the outbreak in Sarpsborg and Fredrikstad is the largest in Norway since spring.
– I think it will take several weeks to get full control of this and beat this outbreak completely, says Nakstad.
– Great risk
Nakstad does not believe that we are in a situation where there is a lot of hidden propagation.
– This is probably the largest outbreak since we took control of the pandemic this spring. It affects several municipalities at the same time, and although these municipalities do a great job of locating infections and laboratories analyze many samples, there is a fairly high risk that not all cases of infection will be detected. Then there may be new clusters of infection and then this outbreak may take a little longer, says Nakstad.
Do not turn off
In Sarpsborg, municipal chief physician Karianne Jenseg Bergman answers the question of whether the closure may be relevant:
– It is the municipal management that makes such decisions based on professional advice. But so far it has not been necessary. As long as we have control over the transmission routes, we implement specific measures with the quarantine of close contacts, the municipal chief tells NTB.
In Sarpsborg, an infection detection team of 25 people, in addition to the six municipal chief doctors, is in the process of tracking those infected and their close contacts, in close collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health and the municipality of Fredrikstad.
Fredrikstad Mayor Jon-Ivar Nygård told NTB that closing the municipality is not relevant as of today.
– No, as long as we have a complete picture of the cases of infection, it is not a relevant measure. We have support for this from the National Institute of Public Health, Nygård says, but emphasizes that if you see the infection being released more in society, it will be a new assessment.
