High warns of new crown measures this week – VG

– The infection spreads quickly and we can’t wait to see if it goes down until next week. Therefore, the government is proposing new measures this week. This is what Health and Care Services Minister Bent Høie (H) said at the government press conference on Tuesday.

The Health Minister takes the situation very seriously after 700 cases of infection were registered in the last 24 hours. He announced that there will be stricter measures next week than those already in place.

– Now it’s serious. In the last 24 hours, 700 new cases of infection have been registered in Norway. Every morning we wake up to new infection logs. There are outbreaks in every county, the virus is spreading rapidly and requires monitoring, he says.

These measures can come

When asked what infection control measures the government is considering introducing this week, Health Minister Bent Høie responds:

– We are still looking at the areas where we see that there is a lot of infection. This applies to contexts where we meet many people and travel internationally on business, he says.

Høie says it is important for people to realize that the situation is dire. The government is considering intensified national and local measures.

If we want to be successful at this again, it is important that each of us see that we are in a very serious situation and that we are in a second wave. We are still in control, but we are under pressure, says Høie.

He asked the municipalities to maintain the activity of monitoring tests and infections.

– If you don’t, it’s the beginning of losing control.

When asked when the measurements will arrive, he responds “before the weekend.”

Worried about infection

In the last 24 hours, 705 cases of coronavirus infection have been recorded in Norway, the VG summary shows. A total of 21,339 people have been confirmed infected in Norway since the outbreak began.

– The situation is serious. Since the beginning of week 43, the infection has only increased, says the director of the National Institute of Public Health, Camilla Stoltenberg.

From weeks 43 to 44, the number of cases of infection at the national level doubled.

– The number of infected increases in all age groups, the number of cases increases throughout the country, the number of cases that do not have Norway as their country of birth increases and the number who will need intensive care and deaths will increase says Stoltenberg.

Health director Bjørn Guldvog is also concerned about the development of infections.

– We are starting to get closer to the temperature we had in March now. I want to emphasize now that it is serious, that is, it says.

It should not affect children and young people.

The Minister of Children and Families, Kjell Ingolf Ropstad (KrF), promises that the new measures will not affect children and young people.

– The government has promised to compensate the municipalities for the additional expenses they receive from the crown, so that they are not cut in offers to the elderly, children and young people, he says.

The government has assigned specific measures for vulnerable older people and to counteract loneliness.

Earlier Tuesday, VG was able to announce that the government will continue with compensation for layoffs until March 2021.

The infection trend in the country is increasing, as in 67 municipalities. In Kongsberg and Hammerfest, the tendency to infection is decreasing.

– We are very close to starting to lose control in some municipalities, says Høie.

The proportion of people who had the corona test is much higher than in the first wave of infection. Last week, 109,609 people were tested in this country and 2 percent of these tests were positive.