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Half a year of crown measurements has passed. Now the director of FHI, Camilla Stoltenberg, is concerned about the increase in fatigue from infections in the population.
Saturday marks six months since the March 12 government introduced the most intrusive peacetime measures to combat the corona pandemic.
– Seriously. It’s the strongest sentiment these days, National Institute of Public Health Director Camilla Stoltenberg tells NTB.
But also a kind of relief, he says. As the highest institution responsible for infection control in Norway, FHI had already warned for several months about what could be happening. Many thought they were overdoing it and skidding with unnecessary black paint.
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– What the government did on March 12 made the general public understand the seriousness of the situation and reassured me, says Stoltenberg.
To delay
She believes Norwegians needed the shock of closing the country, despite heated discussions in hindsight about the dire consequences for the economy, children and young people, the elderly in nursing homes, and the mental health of the population. .
And the arrows went quickly in the right direction. The health service had time to develop its capacity. Infection and mortality rates steadily declined during the spring, and in line with that, the country gradually reopened. At the same time, concern rose again at FHI, says Stoltenberg.
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– At the beginning of the summer, we experienced that people felt that things were going so well that they did not understand why we should continue with the infection control rules, he says.
So it may have been just as heavy on the population when the setback came in August in the form of a local outbreak of infection and the interruption of planned relief, he believes.
Fear of infection control fatigue
In many countries, there have recently been widespread demonstrations against infection measures. Stoltenberg also sees signs of infection control fatigue and burnout in Norway now. And that worries her.
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– The parties we have seen among young people recently, for example, may be an indication of that, he says.
You think it’s understandable.
– People do not have the strength and cannot comply with such strict rules over time. You can take it in one session, but then people start doing other things. They get tired of it.
– Is there an argument to have measures as soft as possible?
– There is an argument in favor of measures that are dosed in the most correct way possible. It may be, for example, not imposing the use of a mask on the entire population and punishing those who do not, if it is not necessary, he says.
– We will take this attrition seriously, but it is also a big challenge to make sure that people continue to remember that it is a pandemic. That balance is a real dilemma, he says.
She says that one of the biggest challenges for authorities going forward is finding good ways to communicate with groups that are not as easy to reach, such as youth and some immigrant communities, where there have also been extensive outbreaks recently.
Do we see the light in the tunnel?
On March 25, Stoltenberg stated that he thought the measures would last 18 months. She believes that the forecast can still hold, but cannot give any guarantees. It all depends on when there is a vaccine that can guarantee the immunity of the population.
– It can also take several years, says Stoltenberg.
– Do you think we can go on vacation abroad next summer like before?
– I do not know.
But once the world returns to normal, the director of FHI hopes that some crown measures will join us permanently:
– I have wondered if we will acquire better habits when it comes to washing our hands and squeezing and holding hands. It would have been an advantage to prevent the spread of many infectious diseases, she says.
Facts about the corona pandemic
* The new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was discovered in January 2020. The first cases of the disease date back to November 2019 in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province in China.
* The new coronavirus causes a respiratory infection and can cause anything from mild symptoms or symptoms to serious illness and, in some cases, cause death. The disease has been called covid-19.
* In the winter of 2020, the infection spread very quickly between countries and continents. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a pandemic.
* As of September 9, 27,772,408 people in 213 countries and territories had been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
* 902,554 (3.2 percent) of those registered have died.
* The coronavirus was first detected in Norway on February 26. As of September 9, 264 corona deaths had been reported to FHI, and 11,624 people had been diagnosed with the infection since February.
* In countries around the world, a series of intervention measures have been initiated to stop the infection.
* In Norway, the most intrusive peacetime measures were introduced on March 12, including the closure of all schools and kindergartens in the country for six weeks.
* Infection measures have had serious economic consequences throughout the world. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated in June that the world economy will shrink by 4.9 percent in 2020.
* It is not expected to control the infection before a vaccine is given. According to the WHO, a coronary vaccine will not be in widespread use until mid-2021 at the earliest.
(Kilde: FHI, Worldometer, FHI, MSIS, NTB)
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