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On Monday, Prime Minister Erna Solberg announced new national measures against the spread of COVID-19 in Norway. The measures appear to violate the government’s strategy. Health Minister Bent Høie denies it.
On Wednesday October 21, Høie told Dagbladet that Norway is following a “Control” strategy. He explained that this means that we must have control of the spread of infection through testing, tracing, isolation and strong measures at the local level.
“On May 7, the government decided to move from the ‘close’ strategy to the ‘control’ strategy, where the objective is precisely to have an overview of the infection situation and to reduce the infection locally when it is discovered,” he said to Dagbladet.
High rejections
Despite this, the government introduced strict national measures that also affect areas with a persistently low spread of infection. Some Norwegians who are now affected by strict measures live in areas that have almost no cases of Covid-19.
– This is part of the “Control” strategy. We do not rule out that we could take the necessary national measures if we experience an increase in infection and a higher frequency of local outbreaks. The measures that were taken on Monday are not general, but are aimed at new areas where we see that there is an increased risk of infection, and it is especially associated with private meetings and labor immigration, Health Minister Høie tells Dagbladet.
– These measures also affect areas with very little infection. Doesn’t it break with the “Control” strategy?
– No. Not in a situation where we have seen a higher frequency of local outbreaks, which are precisely linked to social gatherings and labor immigration. We have said that we can introduce national measures to reduce the risk of too many ongoing local outbreaks. This is one of our concerns: if we have too many local sprouts at once, then they can be found and then we will see the start of a regional or national wave. This is the situation we don’t want to get into.
Solberg refuses
Prime Minister Erna Solberg also denies that the new national measures undermine the “Control” strategy.
– No. Local measures are still the most important thing we have to stop local outbreaks. Outbreak measures are stricter than national standards. But we need to make sure we are vigilant in all parts of the country so that we don’t have too many local outbreaks, Solberg tells Dagbladet and continues:
– There have been 150 local outbreaks so far this fall. This means that quite a few outbreaks have occurred and that quite a few municipalities that previously had almost no infection have suddenly flourished.
The Prime Minister points out Hammerfest, where 17 Hammerfest Hospital employees have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in connection with an outbreak.
– We see, for example, in Hammerfest, where an entire hospital is closed for other than immediate help. It shows how critical it can be if the infection strikes in such an environment.
