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Culture and Gender Equality Minister Abid Q. Raja held a press conference on Thursday to communicate with Pakistani Norwegians on the latest measures from the crown. Photo: Josefine Ytre-Eide Bjaarstad, VG
Bent Høie and Abid Raja warn Norwegian Pakistanis that they are 20 per cent more likely to lose their lives due to covid-19 and that it is therefore very important that measures are closely followed as we enter Christmas .
On Thursday evening, Health Minister Høie and Culture Minister Raja held a press conference specifically targeting the Norwegian-Pakistani community together with the chief doctors from Akershus and the Oslo University Hospital.
The goal was to communicate with up-to-date information on corona infection, the disease, and measures to stop the spread of the pandemic to this group.
The press conference was held partly in Urdu and partly in Norwegian. Abid Raja took on the task as translator and transmitted all the most important crown measurements in Urdu. It says the government is concerned that the infection will increase in settings where more people also do not speak Norwegian, while also pointing to several examples of the coronavirus that affect Norwegian Pakistanis the most.
– Higher risk
– In this group, there are many underlying diseases that are not known, which means that mortality is higher. Therefore, it is important to alert the population of Norwegian-Pakistani origin that they are particularly at risk, because there is a particularly higher risk of dying from infection, Raja tells VG.
He adds that it can be difficult to limit the circle of friends when you have a large family, but that everyone should be careful.
– It is important to be very careful during Christmas. Although you are allowed to meet ten people, you should not meet as many. You can be careful and just hang out with the people you live with – the vaccine is just around the corner too, says Raja.
SUPERVISOR: Sheraz Yaqub from Oslo University Hospital says a study shows higher mortality from corona among people from the Indian subcontinent. Photograph: Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB
Higher mortality
Raja emphasizes that they did not hold the press conference to stigmatize a group.
– They are a well-integrated group in society, but there are many reasons why some can become seriously ill, he says.
Chief Physician Sheraz Yaqub of the Oslo University Hospital says there are many indications that the COVID-19 infection affects people with a history, especially Pakistan, Somalia, Iraq and Turkey.
A British study showed that COVID-19 patients with this history had a mortality rate 20 percent higher than the majority population, although underlying diseases were taken into account. Those admitted to the hospital were also on average twelve years younger than patients in the majority population.
– Given this knowledge, Pakistani Norwegians must be very careful to comply with infection control rules, Yaqub said during the press conference.
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– Stigma for testing positive
During the press conference, the chief doctors made it clear that it is important not to feel embarrassed if you test positive, live with someone who has tested positive, or have many close contacts.
“No one should feel ashamed if they are infected, it can happen because we are unlucky or because we have been in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Yaqub said.
She also believes that it can be stigma to test positive, but believes that it is important to take joint responsibility and get tested.
– It is a stigma to test positive. If, for example, you quarantine the whole class. We also have examples from Tromsø, which have nothing to do with Norwegian Pakistanis, but that social media has been used to ridicule positive cases, Yaqub tells VG.
Introduced immediate measures this week
On Tuesday, the government introduced a series of immediate measures to reduce infection among foreign-born people. A group of experts has proposed 29 measures to reduce the infection.
