Troms and Finnmark have the most covid-19 infection in the whole country in relation to the population.
Now around 10 of the 39 municipalities in the large, merged county municipality will look for answers in a “dark hole” in the infection and vaccination statistics:
Neither local nor national authorities have a complete overview of whether foreign guest workers have been vaccinated.
This applies in particular to men aged 25 to 44 from Romania and the three Baltic countries Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
The municipalities, most along the desire for Finnmark, had a digital meeting on Thursday with the State Administrator in Troms and Finnmark about the increasing infection and about the uncertain vaccination rate among guest workers with addresses both in Norway and their home countries.
On Friday, the state administrator will have a meeting with Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol about the infection situation.
PRESS CONFERENCES: Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol must continue on the same path as her predecessor Bent Høie, with frequent briefings on the infection situation. Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB.
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– FHI does not catch up
Acting county doctor Bjørn Øygard explains:
– The uncertainty is about workers who work for a period and are long at the addresses in their home countries. They may not have stayed here during the local vaccination offers.
Therefore, the infection is highest in the north
– And the Norwegian authorities do not know if they have been vaccinated in their home countries. We have examples of the National Institute of Public Health’s vaccine statistics not capturing that they have been vaccinated at home.
At Thursday’s meeting, it was revealed that the municipalities will, among other things, make information material in several languages and simply find out whether foreigners with a Norwegian address live and work there longer.
– Some of the workplaces are bankrupt and have been closed during the pandemic. And in the countries in question, we see that there is somewhat greater opposition to vaccine requirements from the authorities, as citizens perceive it in relation to here at home, says the county doctor to Dagbladet.
– Glass
– How is the infection situation in Troms and Finnmark per. Thursday?
– It has gotten even worse in recent days. The infection situation is still most disturbing in the cities of Tromsø and Alta. In a short time, a couple of new infection centers have also appeared in Senja municipality and in Lakselv in Porsanger municipality.
