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The Norwegian Health Directorate informs Dagbladet that no specific requirements have been set for what can be considered a suitable quarantine site for foreign workers arriving in Norway.
The Norwegian Health Directorate has now submitted new recommendations related to this to the Ministry of Health and Care Services, according to a December 3 report, which has been given access to Dagbladet.
– There are no pre-specified requirements for what is considered a suitable place to stay when the employer or the client arranges the accommodation of the employees in the entry quarantine, says the director of the matter, Svein Lie, of the Directorate of Health from Norway in Dagbladet.
Divulge
Aftenposten’s revelations on Wednesday shed light on the process that led the government to grant foreign workers quarantine exemptions this summer. Since then, questions have been raised about to what extent this has been one of the reasons for the second wave of infection in Norway. The new report does not respond to this, but highlights insufficient measures to prevent the spread of infection among foreign workers at the quarantine entry.
– The background to the Norwegian Health Directorate’s proposal for additions to the regulations is that some employees have lived in homes without their own bathroom and shared kitchen, and where it has not been possible to stay without contacting other residents, either the other residents to be quarantined. or not, says Lie to Dagbladet.
Norwegian Health Directorate recommendation
«The Norwegian Health Directorate recommends that requirements for what is considered a suitable place of residence be included when the employer or the client arranges the accommodation of employees in the entry quarantine in the regulations of covid-19 § 5 second paragraph letter b: that the person has a private room with access to TV, Internet or similar, separate toilet and access to their own kitchen, possibly that the food is delivered to the place of residence “.
Dark numbers
We don’t know enough about the extent to which foreign workers contributed to the second wave of infection in Norway, the director of the Line Vold department at the National Institute of Public Health tells Dagbladet. This is explained by the large dark numbers associated with covid-19 in Norway. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health estimates that only 40 percent of new cases of infection are identified in Norway. Among these, there is a large proportion where there is no information about the presumed site of infection.
– We don’t know enough about this. We estimate that there is up to 60 percent of the infection in society that we do not detect and therefore we do not know what proportion of the infection in Norway may be due to labor immigration, Vold tells Dagbladet.
Violence, however, refers to the evaluations of the National Institute of Public Health related to this, which emerge from the latest risk assessment.
“The experience is that these employees primarily infect co-workers and to a small extent the general population of local communities. You infect those with whom you are most closely associated, and for visiting workers these are usually other working travelers. The risk of infection from working immigrants to society at large will depend on a number of factors, including conditions in the workplace, conditions at home and the extent to which they are part of the local community beyond work, “writes FHI in Risk Assessment.
Crushing verdict
The greater the spread of infection among foreign workers, the greater the risk that the infection will spread to the rest of society. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health’s assessment of the risk of infection among foreign workers according to current regulations is devastating. FHI uses characteristics such as “high risk” and claims that outbreaks among foreign workers have led to increased physical and mental strain on municipal infection control teams.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health believes that accommodation often offered to employees, who only need their own bedroom, but other shared facilities, “should be considered high risk in terms of transmitting infections.” “The risk of infection with this form of housing increases further with frequent replacement of residents,” they write in their assessment.
“In recent weeks, for example, there have been several outbreaks of barrack platforms that the employer has rented and how many residents share facilities. Data collected by the national infection tracking team from local outbreaks in various municipalities shows an overall increase in the number of outbreaks associated with imports, “writes NIPH, continuing:
“In the period from June 18 to November 29, there were just under 300 outbreaks. Of these, approx. 13 percent are related to imported infections, while this amounted to approx. 10 percent of cases. Of the outbreaks that could be related to import infections, approximately 38 percent affiliated with guest workers, and amounted to approximately 58 percent of cases. Outbreaks among guest workers ranged in size and averaged of 15 cases of infection per outbreak “.
Increased load
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health also believes that outbreaks among foreign workers have led to increased physical and mental strain on infection control teams in municipalities.
“For most outbreaks, guest worker stays were organized in barracks connected to workplaces. In several of these workplaces, outbreaks have grown unnecessarily as a result of living conditions, and the period of Quarantine for residents has been extended significantly as more people have tested positive. This has placed increased physical and mental strain on both workers and infection control teams in municipalities. Several municipalities have reported repeated related outbreaks with the platforms of the barracks, some also in the same workplace “.
Recommend quarantine hotel
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health considers the quarantine hotel plan to be the best infection control alternative in many cases. Therefore, the Norwegian Health Directorate and the National Institute of Public Health propose reducing the deductible for quarantined hotel stays so that more employers use the scheme. Today, it costs the employer 1,500 NOK a day to house employees in quarantine hotels.
The report also indicates that the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority will monitor infection control in all inspections in the future. The Ministry of Health and Care Services considers it necessary to implement inspections in January to prevent new outbreaks in the country. This is with a view to increasing the risk of import infection by business travelers who wish to reach Norway.
