FHI investigates admissions: – High: need to turn around quickly

“We have seen for the first time in this pandemic that people born in the 1990s are admitted to hospitals,” health adviser Robert Steen told Dagbladet in Oslo on Monday. This was part of the reason why the municipality of Oslo introduced very strict measures.

Now FHI Director Camilla Stoltenberg, Health Director Bjørn Guldvog and Health Minister Bent Høie say they are also concerned about development among those born in the 1990s.

– The most difficult thing now is the situation itself where we have a strong increase in cases of infection, we see an increase in the number of admissions among the youngest, and we have to reverse this development quite quickly to be able to get out of this situation in good sense, Høie tells Dagbladet.

– How many people born in the 90’s are admitted?

– I don’t have a complete overview, but FHI goes through this to try and form an image. It is in the last few days that we have seen a sharp increase in hospital admissions, and until then there have been relatively few, says Høie and continues:

– But we have seen studies from countries like the United Kingdom and Denmark that have been in a situation with this variant of the most contagious virus for longer than us, where they see an increase in hospital admissions and an increase in more serious diseases in the most youths. .

FHI should investigate

A total of 84 people in the age group 20-29 have been admitted to the hospital with COVID-19, of which 16 of them were admitted in week 7. Stoltenberg says NIPH will investigate recent admissions in the coming days. .

– The National Institute of Public Health will examine more closely those who have been recently admitted in the coming days. We will both see how they are distributed by age, risk factors and the type of disease they have, etc. We will also see if the risk is higher in some age groups than others. So I don’t have the answers to the specific questions at the moment, but it’s important to get answers to this in Norway, Stoltenberg tells Dagbladet.

She thinks development is very serious.

– The increase that we now see in the number of admissions is very serious. We have an admissions amount that is on par with March of last year and is increasing rapidly. It is our great concern at this time, namely that we see admitting people of all ages. Not just the elderly, but also people in the younger age groups, Stoltenberg says.

Demanding

Health director Guldvog says that relatively few people born in the 1990s are admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 in Norway, but that the number is increasing.

– The number is relatively modest. It is clear that we have not seen that many admissions among people born in the 1990s, but there are a growing number and naturally we also see an increase among people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. The new variant of the virus is both more contagious and somewhat more serious, so more people are admitted and then more admissions are obtained among young people, Guldvog tells Dagbladet.

115 deaths after corona vaccine

– How do you live it?

– He is demanding, very demanding. This means that we must be even stricter on the measures side to ensure that this does not get out of hand. We have a couple of months now where it is very important with this job, so we hope the situation will look a little better eventually.

Possible changes

The government and health authorities have previously said that once we have vaccinated all adults in Norway who are 45 years or older, we can seriously begin to reopen the country. FHI’s sober scenario shows that this is likely to happen during July.

Dagbladet asked Stoltenberg if these assessments change now that he sees more admissions among those under 45.

– We believe that we should offer vaccines to everyone up to age 18, but that is a milestone when you have offered vaccines to everyone up to age 45. This is because the risk is much higher among people over 45 years of age. But we have a concern when it comes to new virus variants, if they can affect differently, and that’s something we’re following, Stoltenberg says.

Parts of the case

Health Minister Høie tells Dagbladet that it may be that underlying diseases are part of the explanation for an increasing number of younger people entering, and that the mutated virus variant may be another part of the explanation. .

– This tells us what we have said all along, that is, because we have protected the most vulnerable, we cannot allow the infection to spread. Because in the general population, there are many who can become seriously ill, and it is not the residents of nursing homes who have been in hospitals and intensive care units before the pandemic, it is those who are my age, for example, the to end there.