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On Friday, Prime Minister Erna Solberg announced that the government will introduce new national measures against the spread of COVID-19 next week. This is due to the disturbing trends in Europe and Norway.
– This is something that we started discussing already on Thursday, and discussions continued on Friday, Health Minister Bent Høie tells Dagbladet.
– The reason for this decision is that at the beginning of the week we saw positive trends indicating a decrease in the spread of the infection both nationally and locally, which has changed towards the end of the week. We have seen an increase in admissions, a higher frequency of local outbreaks, we also learn from what is happening in the countries around us.
It can get worse
Høie says the government doesn’t want Norway to end up in the same situation as many European countries. Therefore, they have now decided that it is necessary to introduce national measures aimed at situations where there is an increased risk of spreading the infection.
– How likely is the spread of the infection to get worse in winter?
– We risk getting worse in the winter months. We tend to stay in and closer to each other during cold months, so it is important that we take care of and adhere to infection control measures this winter.
The Health Minister says there is now a higher risk of the people among us being contagious compared to this summer. Therefore, there is also an increased risk of massive infection events. One of Solberg’s arguments for introducing new national measures is to reduce the level of contagion around Christmas.
– If we have a lot of infection in society, then traditional Christmas activities that will increase the risk of spreading the infection are part of the act. One of the arguments for taking more control is to reduce the number of infections so that we can expect a Christmas as normal as possible, says Høie.
Summer level
Director Camilla Stoltenberg of the National Institute of Public Health agrees that we may run the risk of the spread of infection getting worse during the winter months.
– There is at least a risk of that, and we hope there will also be a further spread of the infection in Norway, says Stoltenberg.
– We have seen an increasing spread of the infection since August, but it has not really represented a new wave. There has been a very gradual and slow increase where outbreaks have been controlled. But then something has risen and we must prevent it from rising further, and preferably we must reduce the spread of the infection to as low a level as we had this summer.
christmas celebration
Deputy Health Director Espen Rostrup Nakstad tells Dagbladet that whether the spread of the infection worsens in the winter months depends on the degree to which we can prevent the spread of the infection around Christmas.
– If we can reduce the number of infections, then we can enter the winter season with little infection and very normal activity. But if we follow the rest of Europe and get an ever-increasing spread of the infection that increases dramatically around Christmas, it will be very difficult to control the spread of the infection in the winter months, as we are further inland, Nakstad tells Dagbladet .
– Is the Christmas celebration itself associated with an increased risk of infection?
– Christmas dinner with colleagues you see at work anyway, it should go very well if you comply with the infection control measures. Whereas at Christmas we probably have less contact with strangers. In that sense, I don’t think it is associated with a particularly large risk in itself, but at the same time there are a number of family businesses, and then it is important to ensure that those who participate are healthy.
