Coronavirus, Erna Solberg | Press conference on the situation of the crown on Friday, October 23

Prime Minister Erna Solberg calls the infection situation in various places in Europe serious and says she is concerned that the infection in Norway will start to spread to older age groups and thus lead to an increase in hospital admissions. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health says a corona vaccine “hopefully” could be ready in spring 2021.

The government announces new austerity measures next week.

– The development of the infection in Europe has gone from bad to worse. There is an increase in coronary heart disease patients over 50 years of age in several countries. There are more intensive care patients and more deaths. Big cities are particularly hard hit, Erna Solberg began at the press conference on the status of the crown on Friday.

Here, Prime Minister Erna Solberg competed with a high-level team comprised of Minister of Health and Care Services Bent Høie, Director of Health Bjørn Guldvog, Director Camilla Stoltenberg at the National Institute of Public Health and Director Audun Hågå at the Norwegian Medicines Agency.

Solberg listed France, Great Britain, Belgium and the Czech Republic as examples of countries in Europe that are now experiencing a very sharp increase in infection, in the latter two countries 1 percent of the population has tested positive.

See table with infection rates in Europe as of October 23

– I’m worried

– This says something about the severity of the infection situation in various countries, Solberg continued, but pointed out several outbreaks in Norway as well.

– I’m worried. We also see that the infection is beginning to spread to older age groups, said Erna Solberg.

– November can be tougher than we imagine. Each of us must make the right decisions. The alternative is more infections and more hospital admissions, Solberg said.

According to Solberg, the goal is for Norway to continue to appear as a country where few have died from the pandemic.

– Risk of a new national wave

– In various parts of Europe, the pandemic is now recovering with great force, Camilla Stoltenberg said, saying that clearly a new wave is underway in Europe.

– Norway does not have a new national wave now, but the risk is clearer, continued the director of FHI.

– Hopefully the vaccine in the spring of 2021

– The development of vaccines gives hope. Never before have so many players in the world worked so fast to develop a vaccine. In the case of vaccines, the goal is always for the population to receive the protection it needs without serious side effects. Coronary vaccines are likely to initially receive conditional approval before knowing anything about long-term effects. We can probably offer a vaccine in 2021, hopefully in the spring of 2021. There may be delays along the way.