City councilor Raymond Johansen tells Dagbladet that the infection situation in Oslo is mainly positive. Recently, the sharp increase in infection has stopped, and even started to go down again. He is nevertheless concerned that the holiday figures may give a false picture.
– We had expected that we would see a decrease in the number of infections during the Easter holidays, as we also saw during the Christmas holidays. I also think that we will see low infection rates in the next few days, partly because fewer people are getting tested, Johansen tells Dagbladet and continues:
– This means that the numbers can give a false picture of the situation, as you also see a decrease in the number of people who test themselves. It’s nice to have a little cautious optimism, but I think we should be a little reluctant to rejoice over the numbers that come in the next few days.
– I have been worried about the mobility during the Easter holidays, which may lead to an increase in infection rates again, but I think the seriousness has subsided over the population. Thus, the Easter holidays may not set us back completely.
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The measures work
As a result of the sharp increase in infection in February and March, the city council leader had to tighten infection control measures three times in just over two weeks. Now he believes that the figures show that the measures work: In week 12, it was registered on average 298 cases of infection per day in Oslo, against 379 per day the week before.
– I believe that it says something about the necessity of the strict measures that we have now, and the importance of us continuing with them for a while longer. In the last period, it has been documented that the measures work very well, and the R-number has decreased from 1.7 in February to 0.7 for Oslo in FHI’s latest weekly report, says Johansen and continues:
– Thus, the measures have also worked against the British virus variant, which has dominated the spread of infection in Oslo in recent weeks, and led to more infection among young adults than before. I think it is good to know both for the city council and the people of Oslo.
HEAVY YEAR: City councilor in Oslo, Raymond Johansen (Labor Party), tells what has been the worst thing about the corona year in Oslo. Photo: Nina Hansen / Dagbladet TV view more
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Relief
The city council leader is carefully trying to say something about any easing of infection control measures, but he does not dare to promise anything, and he emphasizes that the people of Oslo can not shrug their shoulders completely yet.
– The measures initially last for another two weeks, until 15 April. If the level of infection at that time is so low, then we may be able to open up more again, but we may not know that yet. We now know that the measures work, and there are many indications that we are well on our way, but this must not be interpreted as meaning that one can lower one’s shoulders.
At present, kindergartens and parts of the primary schools are operated at a red initiative level. In particularly vulnerable districts, digital teaching has been introduced for 5th to 7th grade. In addition, digital teaching has been introduced for all upper secondary schools and upper secondary schools in Oslo. Oslo Municipality has stated that there will be no changes for kindergartens and schools until 9 April at the earliest.
– How is Oslo doing with a view to returning to the red level again?
– We work with this through Easter, and we hope to have good answers for the week. Efforts are being made, among other things, to increase the test capacity at upper secondary schools, but it is not only up to the municipality, but also the laboratory capacity for which the state and Health South-East are responsible, says Johansen.
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Vaccination rate
The National Institute of Public Health has decided to prioritize vaccination in particularly vulnerable cities and districts in Oslo. The health service in Oslo has informed Dagbladet that in the district of Old Oslo, the fourth priority group has been vaccinated, which includes people aged 65 to 74 and people over 18 in the risk groups.
Johansen points out that Oslo has the capacity to set 110,000 doses a week.
– The vaccination rate is as high as it can be given the number of vaccine doses we have available. We have the capacity to put even more vaccines, says the city council leader.
