A total of seven fully vaccinated residents at Gystadmyr residential and activity center at Jessheim in Ullensaker municipality, have been diagnosed with coronary heart disease. Two of them were hospitalized.
Three of the seven infected have been diagnosed with either South African or Brazilian mutant virus, and the municipality suspects that the other residents are also infected with a mutant virus.
In addition, five employees and two defined close contacts have been infected, a total of 14 people.
Infected by mutant virus – two in hospital
Even before the municipality suspected that the fully vaccinated residents had been infected by either the South African or Brazilian mutant virus, they asked FHI for assistance. On Tuesday, they sent a separate team to Ullensaker to assist.
For as Preben Aavitsland, chief physician at FHI, told VG today:
– That so many fully vaccinated people become infected and ill, has not happened before. We think it’s just bad luck, but we are considering all possibilities.
FHI is now investigating how the vaccines have been stored and how they have been administered.
– It may well be that it is not conditions with storage and setting that make this happen. It is probably more likely that this is a condition of the vaccinated. That these are older and more frail people, who have not had the full effect of the vaccine, says chief physician Are Stuwitz Berg in FHI to NRK Dagsrevyen.
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This is how they work now
Other municipalities in Norway have also experienced the same. Earlier this week, a fully vaccinated nursing home resident in Sandnes died after being infected with the coronavirus.
What FHI specifically does is to assist the municipalities concerned with “infection control advice and handling”, says Line Vold, department director at FHI, in a statement to Dagbladet.
– We look in particular at whether there are special conditions around those who are infected, or the vaccine, or the virus that may have had a bearing on the fact that clusters of infected people have been registered in the nursing homes, says Vold.
In the case of Romerike, all seven fully vaccinated residents received their second and final dose of the corona vaccine over two months ago. The same applies to the nursing home residents in Sandnes.
It is estimated that vaccinated people do not achieve full effect until one to two weeks after receiving the second and last vaccine dose. This applies to so-called m-RNA vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna.
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“Expected”
Although the municipality suspects that the fully vaccinated residents are infected with either South African or Brazilian mutant virus, the Pfizer vaccine should work well against these, says Vold in FHI.
Men:
– It is expected that there could be some infection also among vaccinated, says Vold in the statement, and adds:
– We know that no vaccination protects 100 percent, so it is not surprising that infection and disease can appear in vaccinated people. Fortunately, there have been few such incidents among the country’s 40,000 nursing home patients.
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– A little wondering
At Rovik residential and activity center in Sandnes, there are currently six residents and five employees who have been diagnosed with infection – for several of the cases, the samples have been sequenced and a South African mutant has been detected.
The resident who died, a man in his 80s, had serious underlying diseases, and according to the municipal chief, it is not known whether the man died of or with the coronavirus. The other infected residents have not yet become ill.
– What do you think about the fact that both you and Ullensaker now experience infection in vaccinated residents, and that both outbreaks have mutations?
– It is clear that we are a little surprised that there are so many cases at the same time. With us, it is at least South African, so I think that the vaccine is not as effective against that virus, as against the original or English mutated virus. That is what we are now going to try to get answers to. There have been some reports that not good enough antibodies are created, says municipal chief physician Hans Petter Trovik to Dagbladet.
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First outbreak
The outbreak at Rovik is the first Sandnes municipality has registered so far in the corona pandemic.
– Therefore, we had not thought that we would get it now. We have been scared for a whole year, and now the residents have been fully vaccinated well over two months ago.
Torvik says that he is in dialogue with FHI regarding the outbreak.
– We give them detailed information about each individual disease case, so that they can do a solid analysis, and try and find out if this is a vaccine failure or what is really happening.
Vaccine failure indicates that the vaccine has no effect, explains the municipal chief and adds that there are no vaccines that are 100 percent effective.
Cheers: – Very good news
– Good overview
In the relevant nursing home ward, there are a total of 16 residents. So far no more cases have been reported, but new tests have been taken on Thursday.
FHI’s Line Vold says they have a good overview of the outbreaks at the two nursing homes.
– Many of those who have now been identified as infected do not have symptoms or have very mild symptoms, but there are some with more serious disease courses. Preliminary analyzes show that there may be talk of infection with either the South African variant or the Brazilian variant in Ullensaker and the South African variant in Sandnes, says Vold.
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