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I THINK THE INFECTION WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE: Municipal Chief Doctor Britt Larsen Mehmi in Vadsø Municipality. Photo: Private
Finnmark has so far escaped cheaply. The Vadsø municipal chief believes that the outbreak shows that no one is safe from the coronavirus.
Hammerfest Hospital went on a red alert after four patients and 14 employees were confirmed infected. The national FHI infection tracking team has been dispatched to the municipality to help.
Finnmark, which was a separate county prior to the merger with Troms, has so far been spared large unforeseen outbreaks in the pandemic. Now the situation is different.
In the county’s administrative center, Vadsø municipality, the municipal chief doctor Britt Larsen Mehmi is closely following him, despite the fact that it takes less than an hour to fly to Hammerfest.
– It is extremely important to be alert and to be very careful with infection control now, precisely because we are far from hospitals and now we are in a period of the year where there will be more weather, he tells VG.
– Measuring fatigue occurs when you have been in a pandemic for so long. When an outbreak occurs relatively close to us, it is very important that we remember the infection control rules.
168 people in quarantine
Hammerfest Mayor Marianne Sivertsen Næss said at a press conference Tuesday morning that a total of 20 people in Hammerfest municipality tested positive for COVID-19.
Of these 20, one is hospitalized as a result of an infection.
A total of 168 of the slightly more than 11,000 inhabitants of the municipality have been quarantined. Two-thirds of those in quarantine belong to Finnmark Hospital, while the rest are other close contacts in the municipality.
– All close contacts are contacted and tested. Every time we have new cases of confirmed infection, we have to contact new close contacts, says the mayor.
– Infection not yet detected
The municipal chief understands that 18 cases of infection from an “Oslo perspective” do not necessarily appear as an outbreak. But with just under 80,000 inhabitants spread across Finnmark municipalities, the proportion infected is alarming.
– The admission rate is usually not nearly 25 percent, emphasizes and continues:
– I think there is still an undetected infection. It takes time to get an overview of an outbreak, but I have great faith that Hammerfest Township and Finnmark Hospital will be able to control the situation.
For the iFinnmark newspaper, the municipal chief says that Finnmark can no longer be thought of as “safe”. For VG, she elaborates:
– There are probably many who have thought that Finnmark is safe, that we do not have infection in Finnmark, but we do. Most people do not end up infected, but there is an increased risk of infection, especially at meetings, events, parties, and gatherings. And especially when drinking alcohol, the meter shrinks.
Larsen Mehmi points out that Vadsø is, to a small extent, a parish of Hammerfest Hospital. The residents of the municipality are sent mainly to the Kirkenes hospital, with the exception of children and some mothers.
You have developed symptoms after a negative test.
As a result of the outbreak, Finnmark Hospital has begun mass testing of employees in the affected wards. 140 employees were tested on Monday.
– Those examined in this group are asymptomatic health workers; they have no symptoms and are not identified as close contacts, says Mayor Sivertsen Næss.
– Although infection should not be expected in the first place, there are likely to be positive responses. We know this because cases of infection have been detected without any reported symptoms.
The mayor says several of those who are in quarantine and who previously received negative test results have now started to develop symptoms. This means that they must be tested again.
– It says something about how important it is to comply with the quarantine obligation, says Sivertsen Næss.
Patients may have been infected in the hospital.
As a result of the infection situation, the Hammerfest Hospital medical department is closed for admission. Township Councilor Leif Vidar Olsen says he is demanding that the staffing clique be increased.
Patients requiring hospitalization will be sent to UNN.
The redeployment of staff affects several municipal services, including kindergartens and schools.
The councilor believes he is demanding that Hammerfest be one of the Finnmark municipalities that must accept any infected ships on board.
– It is not a very simple situation. If we had had an infected ship for Hammerfest, we would not have been able to handle it. We have reported this to the county governor, he says.
– It says a little about the situation in which we find ourselves, and how many resources we spend in cases of contagion and what is happening now in the municipality.
