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Health Minister Bent Høie (H) drew attention when this weekend he harshly confronted Councilor Raymond Johansen (Labor):
Or introduce new and stricter crown measures in the capital; otherwise do it me That was the message from the minister of health to the leader of the municipal council.
Johansen followed Høie’s signals and on Monday introduced stricter measures, including a bandage order on public transport.
Reacts strongly: – Had a crown
Høie was satisfied with the new Oslo measures, but Dagbladet can now reveal how the alarm was triggered both in the ministry and in professional circles last week.
– I would wait for the fall break
Oslo was then in a situation where infection rates had risen from 100 to 300 per week since the beginning of September. Therefore, it caused great unrest both in the ministry and among health bureaucrats that Oslo would wait to introduce stricter measures.
According to an internal memo known to Dagbladet, the perception in the ministry was that Oslo would possibly only introduce new measures after the fall break, in part because no political meetings were planned.
At that time, there was already great concern about the development of the infection in Oslo, where some areas have an infection of 140 per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks. The limit for defining a region or country outside of Norway as “red” is 20.
Neither the ministry nor the health bureaucrats were impressed with the measures introduced by Oslo on September 21, which they believed were far from being strict enough to fight the infection.
170 students in quarantine
Rejected by the city council
With its 680,000 inhabitants, Oslo is the first stronghold to prevent the spread of infection in Norway. A total of 1.3 million people live in the region of housing and the labor market, which includes the capital and neighboring municipalities.
Dagbladet is also aware that there was close contact between Health Minister Bent Høie and City Councilor Raymond Johansen during the past week, where Høie expressed concern.
However, the impression on the ministry and professional communities that Oslo would only introduce new measures after the autumn holidays was not properly understood, according to the Oslo City Council.
– The plan was to have a new press conference on the infection situation and any new measures on Thursday, October 1. Then we would have had the opportunity to see if the measures that we implemented on Monday, September 21, had taken effect. Otherwise, the town council leader meets every day to discuss the infection situation and measures, of course also during the autumn holidays, and the town council can take further action at very short notice if it thinks it is necessary, says City Clerk Halvard Hølleland in the Town Hall Leader’s office.
I have no idea what Raymond was going to say
High threat
The municipalities are responsible for infection control and it is far from the ministry to intervene and annul a municipality. But the opportunity is there.
However, Høie took an unusual step when he told Aftenposten that he was considering pressing the big red button.
– Acting quickly is important. I am closely monitoring the situation in Oslo and am prepared to make national decisions if the Oslo city council does not follow the advice of the management, Høie (H) told the newspaper.
Dagbladet is aware that there have been unrest over the situation in Oslo for a long time, but that last week and an experience in which advice was not listened to, caused it to overflow.
That’s why he challenged Høie
“Damn” Raymond
Raymond Johansen was initially prepared to go with the wait-and-see plan that was introduced on September 21. On Sunday night, Johansen told Dagbladet that he had no plans to introduce measures on Monday.
However, Johansen ended up introducing new measures that day to comply with the wishes of the Health Minister.
– The Minister of Health has taken the unusual step of threatening to nullify Oslo, if Oslo did not introduce new measures recommended by the Norwegian Directorate of Health and the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH). I’m surprised, Johansen said at the press conference when he was pressured to introduce new measures.
According to Dagbladet sources, Johansen was “angry” at the pressure he was subjected to and perceived Høie’s intervention as a political threat.
But Bent Høie was happy in the end.
– I fully support the package presented by the Oslo City Council. I want to thank the city council for now presenting a general package of measures that is good and sufficient to handle the infection situation, Høie said.
