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With just over a week to go to Christmas Eve, many Norwegians have already made plans for how and with whom the Christmas celebration will take place.
Several have chosen to self-quarantine to reduce the risk of infecting the family on Christmas Eve. Others may have planned to have a coronal test before the Christmas celebration to rule out being infected.
Several municipalities recommend that visitors take the test.
Among other things, the municipality of Åmli writes that they “offer tests for visitors during the Christmas holidays” and the municipality of Sandefjord that “we are happy to test you when you arrive, whether or not you have symptoms.”
The deputy director of health, Espen Nakstad, strongly warns against this.
– Many people may think that after a negative test they do not pose a potential risk of infection to others and abandon the rules of infection control or quarantine. We are very concerned about that, he says.
Just a snapshot
Nakstad recalls that a negative corona test only gives a snapshot. The tests only show if you have a virus in your nose on the day the test is done.
– If you are already infected, but become ill a few days later, the test will not reveal anything. The incubation period of covid-19, that is, the time that elapses from the moment it becomes infected until the disease breaks out, can range from two to fourteen days, he recalls.
You are concerned that people who receive a negative test will take control of the infection more lightly and therefore run the risk of infecting others. Also, you are concerned that you are charging the test device unnecessarily.
– At the same time, it is important to emphasize that we would very much like people with symptoms to be tested. The same applies to those who are close contacts of an infected person. So the municipality will likely call you and ask you to take a test to rule out you’ve infected others before going into quarantine, he says.
Remember that infection control rules are still the most important in fighting the spread of the virus:
– Keeping your distance from others and following other infection control tips is the most important thing, regardless of the test result, he says.
Good testability
In a larger survey conducted by TV 2 this weekend, more than nine in ten municipalities surveyed said they have the ability to test visitors at Christmas in the event of a possible outbreak of infection. Only a small number said it will be relevant to test everyone who comes.
The vast majority stated that they are “well” or “very well equipped” for an outbreak.
Espen Nakstad also believes that municipalities will have a good testing capacity during Christmas and aims, among other things, at the launch of a million rapid tests.
He is not concerned that the slight decrease in the number of people testing themselves is because people do not want to be quarantined or isolated at Christmas.
– I think most people get tested when they have symptoms or when asked to do so in connection with detecting infections. There are still around 100,000 people testing themselves each week, Nakstad says.
Instead, he believes the reason for the decline is due to the fact that there are fewer respiratory and cold viruses in circulation and that slightly fewer outbreaks have recently been reported.
INFECTION NUMBERS: The director of the Line Vold department of the National Institute of Public Health believes that the numbers of infections stabilized last week. Photo: Jil Yngland / NTB
– Not so strong decline
On Sunday, 200 corona infections were recorded in Norway. That’s 164 less than the day before and 50 less than the same day last week.
The NIPH claims that the weekly report for week 50, which will soon be completed, shows that there were about 2,300 cases of infection last week compared to 2,500 the week before.
– It is not as strong a decrease in the number of infections as we have seen before, but a flattening, says the director of the department Line Vold.
She says that certain people are experiencing a growing trend of infection, among Innlandet, Trøndelag, Telemark and Vestfold counties. Oslo and western Norway still have the highest infection rates on a daily basis.
When you invite home
National rules state that you are allowed to invite five people to your home. At Christmas, however, an exception is made to the rule, as it is allowed to invite up to ten people to the house twice, for example, on Christmas Eve and New Years. Some municipalities have introduced stricter restrictions than national regulations.
– The most important thing when you invite people to your home is that the people you invite are healthy and not quarantined, says Nakstad.
