Outbreaks appearing after Easter in Østfold – VG

On Tuesday, both municipalities chose to close the upper secondary schools in the next few days after an outbreak of infection among young people who have celebrated at Easter.

– It is worrying that so many gather in a phase like this, where we have very strict restrictions, says Kjersti Gjøsund, municipal chief physician in Halden, to VG.

Infected after partying in Halden

In Halden, ten people have been diagnosed with the infection in the last two days, and all are linked to “gatherings at Easter”, according to the municipal chief. Eight of those infected are aged 17 to 20 years.

– Currently, this is a minor outbreak, but it has the potential to become large, says Gjøsund.

I a press release Tuesday night, the municipality writes that young people have been gathered both at each other’s homes, in cars and outdoors at Easter.

Are we talking about parties?

– Yes, we have received confirmation that we are talking about parties.

The municipal chief says she does not know how many young people have been gathered at most.

But are we talking about dozens of young people?

– Yes, we have understood that there have been dozens of young people gathered.

In particular, there are four places where many young people have been gathered: According to the municipality, it is in the places Venås, in Svinesundparken and by Sauøya on Maundy Thursday, and at Høvleriet and Svinesundsparken on Easter evening.

The municipality states that they are certain that there have been infections present in these places.

– It is understandable that young people struggle and want to experience something different when they go to another meeting with strict restrictions, but they simply have to hold back if we are to reopen, says Gjøsund.

Halden upper secondary school is now closed for the rest of the week.

– We will test very many and have homeschooling for three days, and expect to have a better overview of the outbreak during the week.

– Has spread further in different gangs

In Moss, at least 15 upper secondary students have been confirmed infected during Easter, and 14 of these can be linked to social gatherings. It writes Moss Avis.

– We know that there have been two parties where there has been an infected person. Then the virus has spread further in different gangs, says Birk Juul Aschjem, Russian president in Moss to the newspaper.

On Tuesday, Moss municipality decided to close high schools the next days.

Municipal chief physician Kristian Krogshus will not tell the newspaper whether there is talk of parties or not, but says the infection trace shows that there have been several social gatherings among young people.

– We see that several of the young people have met many during Easter, and together there are many close contacts, he says to Moss Avis.

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Expect an increase in infection in the next few days

Krogshus believes there is reason to expect that infection rates will increase in the next few days, and encourages students to get tested.

– It is crucial that students who have had contact with each other test themselves as soon as they can. Together with infection tracing and quarantine, testing is the most important tool we have to get an overview of the infection situation and stop the spread, he says to Moss Avis.

In VG’s corona overview, you can see the infection figures for both Moss and Halden.

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