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On September 28, the city of Oslo introduced strict measures to prevent the spread of covid-19. Since then, the level of infection has been stably high, too high, according to Health Minister Bent Høie.
These days, the city of Oslo and the National Institute of Public Health are collaborating to find out where the risk of infection is highest, in order to be able to adjust measures against the spread of covid-19.
– Based on our strategy, strict measures were introduced in Oslo, which may appear to be working. But it is too early to draw a definitive conclusion. The measures have at least contributed to preventing an increase in infection in Oslo, while now we see a possible decrease. This is good, but the infection must be reduced even more before one can begin to ease the measures, Høie tells Dagbladet and continues:
– Of course, you can adjust the measures as a result of new knowledge, but the situation in Oslo is not at a comfortable level, there is still too high a level of infection in Oslo.
Oslo infection
The package of measures was introduced in week 40 after national health authorities put pressure on Councilor Raymond Johansen. Statistics show that 315 cases of infection were recorded at week 39, 291 at week 40, 372 at week 41, and 306 at week 42.
– We see that strict measures work, but we also know that strict measures have a downside. Therefore, it is not the case that we use the strictest measures in every situation. They must adapt to the situation and be proportionate. We believe that Oslo has introduced a package of measures that is suitable for this situation, says Høie.
City council leader Raymond Johansen tells Dagbladet that the infection situation at the moment appears to be stable, but that the city council, of course, wants the infection to decrease further.
– Compared to other big cities in Europe, the situation in Oslo is quite good. We managed to keep the city open, while keeping the infection away from the most vulnerable, Johansen tells Dagbladet and continues:
– Hopefully, the strict measures we have introduced in recent weeks will reduce the infection, but if the infection increases again, we will reconsider even more strict and specific measures, in close collaboration with the NIPH and the Norwegian Health Directorate.
Specific measures
Health director Bjørn Guldvog tells Dagbladet that managing the spread of the infection in Oslo is in line with Norway’s strategy to control the spread of infection and stop local outbreaks.
– The infection in Oslo has been at a high level over time, but it is in line with our strategy. “Our goal is to prevent the development of local outbreaks to a more widespread spread of the infection, and this has so far been successful in Oslo,” Guldvog tells Dagbladet.
The department director of the National Institute of Public Health, Line Vold, tells Dagbladet that they are now collaborating with the city of Oslo to find out where the risk of infection is greatest.
– Work is being done in the municipality of Oslo, with the support of FHI, where they analyze the data they have to take a closer look at whether we can find out in which places the infection occurs more frequently than in other places. On the basis of this work, it will also be assessed whether there are reasons to adjust the measures to make them more specific, Vold explains to Dagbladet.
Strategy
Health Minister Høie explains why he thinks it is a bad idea to let the infection spread unimpeded in order to finally achieve herd immunity in the population.
– I think it’s a very bad strategy. This is because we do not know how long immunity lasts, and it means that there must be a further spread of the infection in the population. Therefore, people in risk groups will likely be affected, as there are so many that it is not possible to isolate them over time. In addition, our health service would have been affected twice, both by congestion and by infected and quarantined employees, says Høie, adding:
– Unfortunately, we see in other European countries now that a terribly difficult situation has arisen because you have too high an infection.
Høie says the government initially followed the “Closure” strategy, and that since May 7 it has followed the “Control” strategy, which means that we must control the spread of the infection by testing, monitoring and isolating the infection. , and introduce strong measures locally when the infection situation requires it. the.
– The goal of the strategy is to get an overview of the infection situation and reduce the spread of infection locally when discovered, says Høie.
