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During a press conference on Wednesday, Minister of Justice and Emergency Management Monica Mæland (H) and Minister of Health and Care Services Bent Høie (H) reported on the latest news on the corona situation.
There, they specified, among other things, that the duty to notify all those staying in quarantined hotels will be introduced. Additionally, February’s “hard rules”, which said that fully vaccinated nursing home residents could squeeze each other and some visitors, are extended to apply to other fully vaccinated seniors.
Dagbladet meets Høie after the press conference.
– How afraid is initiative fatigue in the population?
– I’m very afraid of that. Therefore, we are reluctant to use measures without believing that they are strictly necessary, Høie tells Dagbladet.
The good news, according to the Health Minister, is that the government now knows that the measures used previously are taking effect.
– This means that we can now spend a little more time and see if the softer measures work, such as testing, tracking and quarantine, before we attack with the harsher measures. Precisely to prevent people from getting even more tired of the measures.
Change the quarantine rules
– Demanding situation
Høie admits that Oslo is in a “demanding situation” with a growing infection.
FHI claims that the so-called R number in Oslo has been between 0.9 and 1.9 so far in February. Probably around 1.4. Therefore, FHI believes that infection is likely to increase.
– It is important that we follow the situation. But I also have the experience that the Municipality of Oslo, together with FHI and the Norwegian Health Directorate, works very strongly with what is now the main objective, namely to be able to take control and reduce this infection, through tests, monitoring, isolation and quarantine, says Høie.
If that doesn’t help, the city of Oslo should consider whether stricter measures are needed. In the final analysis, the situation should be assessed at the national level, according to Høie.
– So, after four months in prison, you don’t know why the infection suddenly increases in Oslo?
– The reasons for the increased infection are almost the same in all cases. It is that people gather to a greater extent than before, and this leads to an increase in infection.
More is squeezed
– Urolig
Health Director Bjørn Guldvog shares Høie’s concern about measurement fatigue.
– I’m worried about that. At the same time, we know that support for the measures is very, very strong, Guldvog tells Dagbladet.
– How do you know that?
– We measure it every week. We have seen that this trend is quite stable, and more than 80% of the population is in favor of the measures.
At the same time, trust in health authorities has changed in recent times, according to Guldvog.
– Now it’s likely to go up a bit again, but we saw a little “float” a couple of weeks ago. But I’m worried? Yes, of course I am. I know it myself and I know that absolutely everyone wants to do more than we can from today.
The Director of Health adds:
– I want to emphasize that we are actually incredibly lucky to have infection rates as low as we do. If the alternative is to open up more, become infected much more and thus have to close society much more again, it is a bad alternative.
Now it’s about control
– Many tools remain
Høie says it is not known what effect each individual measure has.
– It is the sum of the measures that has an effect, says Høie.
– If the infection increases now, what tools do you have left, when it has been so serious for four months?
– Norway has many tools left. We are one of the countries that has relatively soft measures compared to most of the countries around us. In Denmark, for example, there is a completely different level of measures. We also have those measurements in the toolbox, and while we’ve used them before, they haven’t been exhausted. This means that we can reintroduce them if necessary.
“Last week, the number of cases in Oslo increased by 44 percent,” writes FHI in its weekly report.
In total, 2.9 percent of crowning tests conducted in Oslo were positive in the past two weeks, writes FHI. It is the highest in the country. The proportion nationwide is 1.6% of corona positive samples.
“Outbreaks in the county are increasingly caused by the English variant of the virus,” writes FHI.
