Never before have so many people been registered with corona infection in one day in Norway and in the capital. But Oslo’s municipal chief physician focuses on completely different things than the infection rates.
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1772 people tested positive for corona after PCR testing in Oslo last day. It is a new record in the capital.
– We have never had such high numbers for a day. We know that omikron is more contagious, and we expect high infection rates now, says chief medical officer and TISK coordinator in Oslo Miert Skjoldborg Lindboe to Aftenposten.
The proportion who receive positive samples at the test stations in Oslo is now 29 percent. That proportion has increased steadily since Christmas.
This is because many have already taken quick tests at home, and then it is pre-selected to a greater extent who comes to the test stations.
The Oslo figures follow the national picture: In the last 24 hours, 7921 corona infections have been registered in Norway. This is the highest number since the pandemic started. That is more than twice as many as the average over the last seven days of 3781, and the trend is rising.
– We are entering the wave of infections of all time, states assistant health director Espen Nakstad to VG.
Looking at other factors
Municipal chief physician Lindboe is still not so concerned about the record. He says that people were much more concerned about high infection rates in March 2021, when fewer people had been vaccinated.
– We are now concerned with monitoring the load on the emergency room, GP, nursing homes and hospitals, he says.
He says that the oldest and those with the most underlying diseases who have been vaccinated with the third dose are the group with the least infection.
– So we see that the vaccines protect.
Last week, the most infected were in the age group 30-39, that group still tops the infection rates. But the group 20-29 is on the way up.
– What does the record mean?
– We do not know yet. We know that omikron takes over the infection. Some signs suggest that the omicron is milder. If there are many vaccinated among those who are infected now, then this infection may not have much to say, Lindboe says.
Still worried
It is good news that most people who are fully vaccinated do not get seriously ill. This is what subject director Frode Forland at the National Institute of Public Health says TV 2.
The risk of serious illness is considered to be between 50 and 80 percent lower for omicron than the delta variant.
The health authorities are nevertheless concerned about the burden on the health care system. Assistant health director Espen Nakstad says VG that even though the risk of serious illness is far lower, the risk of becoming infected is so high that there may still be as many admissions in total.
On Tuesday, 304 corona patients were hospitalized. There were 21 fewer than the day before. There are also fewer people in the intensive care unit and fewer people receiving respiratory treatment than the day before.
–Professor believes infection rates are underreported
There are three main reasons for Tuesday’s gloomy infection records, according to the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) and the Norwegian Directorate of Health:
- The omikron virus is now the dominant virus in Norway, and it spreads much more easily than the delta variant.
- A backlog after Christmas makes the numbers unnaturally high. The number who tested themselves was almost halved in the last two weeks of the year compared with the two weeks before. Thus, there may have been some undetected infection at Christmas.
- Mass testing in many municipalities of students, teachers and kindergarten staff before school starts. It has probably revealed more infection, although the numbers are not yet clear here.
Medicine professor Anne Spurkland at the University of Oslo believes that even the high numbers we see now are too low, and that there is a lot of under-reporting of the infection.
– I think the wave is bigger than what we see the contours of now, she says NRK.
Spurkland believes that the situation in Norway is comparable to other countries that have had a sharp increase in infection. Among other places in Denmark where 25,000 were registered infected on Tuesday. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal have also registered record high infection rates recently.
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