The mutant will dominate the entire country, FHI fears. In Nittedal, the municipality receives help from Oslo and Lørenskog.

Nittedal doubled testing capacity after a mutant outbreak this weekend, but still needs help. Outbreaks of mutants were reported in various places around the country on Monday.

On Monday night, cars lined up in front of the test station in Nittedal city hall, a half-hour drive north of Oslo city center. All with one goal: to test covid-19.

14 cases of contagion over the weekend, followed by 11 cases on Monday, have sounded the alarm in Nittedal. The outbreak is believed to be due to the British mutant virus.

On Monday night, the municipal chief doctor Tron Hauland Torkildsen received the answer he expected. Nittedal receives support from the neighboring municipalities of Oslo and Lørenskog.

– Oslo has now been opened for Nittedal people to get tested at Rommen. Lørenskog has been opened for 300 people from Nittedal to take tests during the week, says the municipal head of Aftenposten.

Earlier in the day, the mayor of Nittedal, Inge Solli (V), had drawn a gloomy picture:

– We don’t know where the infection comes from.

Several parts of the country are experiencing larger and larger outbreaks of mutated viruses.

Extended testing capacity

This weekend, 112 suspected samples of the British or South African variant of the coronavirus were found, recent figures from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) show on Monday night.

Nittedal is one of the places where they have been visited by the English mutant virus. Now the testing capacity has skyrocketed, says the municipal chief.

– During the day we have doubled the test capacity from 350 to 700 per. day. It’s not enough yet, Torkildsen tells Aftenposten.

– Throughout the pandemic, we have not needed to use the entire test capacity of around 350. But now we do. Testing capacity has exploded, he adds.

Therefore, help from Oslo and Lørenskog is expected.

Infection on the alpine slopes

So far, the outbreak has been traced to two schools in Nittedal. On Monday, the municipality encouraged everyone who has been downhill skiing on the Varingskollen ski slope this weekend to put themselves to the test. This is where the municipality’s infection tracers have traced the outbreak.

– We know that several of those who tested positive have been to Varingskollen. Whether they contracted the virus there or may have infected others is not safe, says the municipal chief.

FHI has sequenced two samples using a new rapid method. He concluded that Nittedal with its 24,000 inhabitants has had to deal with the British variant. The municipal chief says that after 25 positive tests in four days, he had already begun to suspect that the municipality had contracted a mutated virus.

– About half of those who test positive are 7-year-olds going to second grade. There is also a teacher and brother in an upper secondary school who tested positive, he says.

A teacher and three other students who have been in close contact with the youth from Hakadal ungdomsskole have tested positive for the coronavirus, he says.

British rule

Viken, Vestland and Oslo. All counties have had a number of outbreaks of the English virus variant, the FHI overview shows. Furthermore, it is feared that the mutated virus has moved to Trondheim, where several hundred must be quarantined.

FHI assumes that the mutated virus will soon affect society.

– We consider it likely that the English variant will become dominant in all or parts of the country in a few weeks or months, said NIPH department director Line Vold.

Before the weekend, 94 people had been diagnosed with the British variant of the virus in Oslo. By Monday, the number of registered cases had risen to 134. In Viken, the number had risen from 128 to 171. While in western Norway it had gone from 49 to 68.

On Monday, the Oslo health council, Robert Steen, announced that the municipality will not make any relief in the near future.

– There are more who have tried the British variant than we expected, Steen told VG.

One in ten infected

Among the most affected places is the small municipality of Ulvik in Vestland county. The municipality, which has 1,067 inhabitants, has in a short time been the epicenter of coronary heart disease in Norway, if measured in infection by. habitant.

On Sunday night, half of the inhabitants were quarantined. Almost 10 percent of the population is infected.

On Sunday, the government introduced a series of intervention measures for Ulvik, Kvam and Bergen following the outbreak of the mutated virus in the three municipalities. Among other things, a red level has been introduced in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, and bar stalls. Furthermore, most of the stores have had to close.

The new normal

The closure of the Bergen region this weekend is the country’s third in a short time.

On Sunday, health director Bjørn Guldvog warned that it won’t necessarily be the last.

– In the phase of the pandemic that we are in now, with new and more infectious mutant viruses, this is the new normal, Guldvog said on Sunday.

Possibly the Trondheim region is the next to have to close. On Monday, it became clear that everyone who has been to Bygger’n Heimdal in Trondheim between February 1 and 5, and everyone in these clients’ homes, should be quarantined and screened as soon as possible. possible.

Everyone must take the test immediately and on the seventh day after starting work. The quarantine will last ten days after the date of the last visit.

The quarantine and testing order comes after a Bygger’n Heimdal employee tested positive for the coronavirus. Tracing the infection means that there is a suspicion that it is the British variant of the virus, which is therefore more contagious than normal.