The Omikron infection at a concert in Stavanger – everyone who was present must get tested

– The infection tracking in the municipality contacted us. One of the concert goers has been confirmed to have a micron infection. This means that everyone who was at the concert must have a PCR test as soon as possible, says Folken boss Jesper Brodersen to Aftenbladet.

On Thursday night, an SMS message was sent to everyone who was at the concert with more information. It says that everyone must take a PCR test and stay at home until the answer to the test is available.

«Further quarantine after this is not necessary, but the concert goers must take a new PCR test on day 8 after possible infection exposure. In this case, it means Sunday 12 December »it says in the message that has been sent out to the concert guests.

The infection traces in Stavanger municipality refer to this website for more information.

– A big deal

– The concert was almost sold out. That means about 600 spectators in addition to employees, volunteers and other staff, says Brodersen.

The first confirmed case of the omicron variant in Rogaland was detected in Sandnes on Tuesday.

On Tuesday night, the government chose to introduce strict corona measures to slow down the spread of the new corona variant.

Infection control doctor Ruth L. Midtgarden in Stavanger municipality first found out about the case of the infection, which most likely is about omikron, Thursday night.

– Here we can have a real contagion bomb. It is a big deal when over 600 people could potentially be infected. Now we can hope that the concert goers follow the request to stay inside and take PCR tests. But these are not defined as close contacts of the infected, she says.

Variant-screening

If it turns out that more people are infected with the omikron virus, the infection tracers will have a difficult job going forward.

What the municipality has learned today is that the case of infection in the person who was at the concert in Folken on Saturday, is not about the delta variant. The variant screening of a positive test is available two days after infection is detected.

– Then it’s probably omikron, because we do not know of other variants that are in circulation now. But the final omikron confirmation will take another two days before we receive, says Midtgarden.