Coronavirus: fear of the crisis of the crown far beyond the fall

As of Good Friday, the situation is under control in both municipalities. But Iren Ramsøy, head of health and care at Sel, fears and believes that it is not all over now.

– Anyway, it will be a different summer for most people. We are preparing for a new spike of infection in a few weeks, as the Institute of Public Health warns. We all ask that this be taken seriously.

“And we fear and are seriously preparing for it to last well beyond the fall,” city manager Iren Ramsøy tells Dagbladet.

Medical warnings about the visit of several patients from the residents of Sel and the neighboring municipality of Nord-Fron after the winter holidays in northern Italy triggered the crown alarm in Sel in late February / March.

The first message to the residents of the municipality was published after the long crown since February 28.

Every sixth quarantined

“The health service in the municipality of Sel is prepared so that a corona infection reaches the municipality,” was the message.

March 5 at 10:13: “Covid-19 (corona) infection was detected in the municipality of Sel. The cause of the infection is the way to come from abroad.”

By then, the infection had been detected the previous day with the first tourist in Italy from the same traveling companion in the North Fron.

March 5 at 4:00 p.m. “About 40 residents from the quarantine in Sel”.

March 8: More than 200 quarantined.

March 11 at 1 p.m. 12:30: Around 500 in quarantine.

March 11 at 1 p.m. 18: “Quarantine is now approaching 1,000 inhabitants.”

In other words, more than one in six of the 5,700 inhabitants of the municipality in quarantine.

Status by Good Friday: Three of the 36 who have been found infected in the Otta Municipal Center and the rest of the Sel municipality are still in home quarantine. No one died, no one in Sel’s hospital.

Not just close contact

– How did they map and introduce domestic quarantine to Sel so quickly?

– Many have put enormous effort into detecting infections. Based on our knowledge of other serious infectious situations, we carefully checked people in the so-called risk groups and with whom they had all been in contact for 48 hours before they felt any discomfort. And we do not trust the assumptions of the Institute of Public Health that close contact was a route of infection. For example, our experience now shows that one of the sick people became infected in a meeting room with no close contact, says the municipal manager of health and care.

And he adds: – I started the work in 2017, and I noticed from the beginning that the whole apparatus in Sel Municipality is well trained and very oriented. There is a lot of experience in flood management and other emergency situations.

– Much faster than sars

Even Iren Ramsøy is an intensive care nurse with several years of experience in the fields of Haukeland University Hospital, even during the SARS epidemic.

– This is the worst health situation in the world in recent times. This corona virus spreads much faster than sars.

Together with the municipality’s infection control physician Therese Renaa, she began ordering more infection control kits from the municipality’s permanent provider in January.

It was based on news reports on the situation in northern Italy.

– Even then there was a shortage and waiting lists on suppliers after orders from many places in the world. We checked the market and got equipment from time to time, says the municipal health official.

Double risk

She points out a couple of negative factors for her municipality and district when a new crown peak is likely to arrive:

– The interior has an older population than the average in other parts of the country. This means a larger risk group for the disease.

– And Inland County has calculated an infection factor of 1.4 per person. Infected person There is twice the risk of infection as calculations by national authorities. Failed calculations, in my opinion, says the Municipal Manager Iren Ramsøy.

And here are his biggest fears ahead:

– If the worst estimate of 40% of health workers at the Institute of Public Health is sick or quarantined, there will be a crisis with many unskilled temporary workers. It becomes very difficult with the necessary training in such a situation. A bright spot is that NAV has mapped a health education section among layoffs from other industries.