On Monday, 168 corona patients were admitted to Norwegian hospitals. That is 47 more than before the weekend, and the highest number since April this year. Now is the infection trend rising nationally.
Among the municipalities hardest hit is Tromsø. Thursday it was set new infection record in the municipality with 62 new cases in one day. The same day the municipality came with a number of recommendations about distance and home office.
– The advice is not so strict, but it is a fairly significant change that you introduced advice. This means that we have given up living with the infection without measures. The immunity of the population is not enough for us to live through the winter without measures, says infection control chief Trond Brattland to Dagbladet.
Outbreak of infection: – Demanding situation
Measures throughout the winter
Brattland believes that the residents of Tromsø will have to live with measures all winter. He points out that the coronavirus thrives best in the cold and that the municipality does not have a high enough degree of immunity among the population.
– With the coming winter effect, the virus will continue to spread if immunity does not improve much. When we come to spring, the infection can dabble, he says.
INCREASED INFECTION: Municipal chief physician Trond Brattland reckons that the infection will increase in the future. Photo: Rune Stoltz Bertinussen / NTB
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He is aware that the municipality has started an “escalation plan”, initially with recommendations to the Tromsø residents. If the recommendations do not give the desired effect and lower infection rates, the municipality will tighten further.
– We expect that the infection will continue to increase. Although the measures will be sufficient, the infection rates will increase because the measures are not linked to infection in the household. We have had more infection among young people, and this weekend it was among primary school students. We must probably expect to see the effect of the measures at the beginning of next week – and if we do not, measures may become a topic, says Brattland.
This was confirmed on Thursday a subgroup of the delta virus which has not previously been discovered in Norway. The municipality does not currently know the characteristics of the subgroup.
– Goes sick at school
Discuss measures
On Tuesday, the presidency in Tromsø will meet to discuss potentially stricter measures in an attempt to prevent its introduction at short notice. However, he is clear that the municipality will not introduce measures until two weeks have passed since the previous introduction of measures.
– What has happened with us before is that the measures have been introduced at short notice and presented at an extraordinary meeting. Then the discussion about measures gets worse, he says.
The chief infection control officer adds that the municipality is in a new situation today – and that the purpose of the measures has changed since the last time they introduced them.
Before, the intention was to reduce the infection and close possible loopholes. That is not the situation now. It is to put a brake, and vaccination is a good brake. It is important to find a combination of measures that have an effect but at the same time do not have too great negative ripple effects, he says.
Brattland believes the health service will have “a rather demanding winter” – especially as a result of an increase in respiratory infections, such as influenza and RS virus.
– We see that in the municipal health service there is a lot of pressure on the emergency room and quite a lot of sick leave, he says.
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Increased preparedness at UNN
Helse Nord is one of the health regions where the increase in covid patients is greatest. From Friday to Monday, the number of patients has increased from 17 to 31 – ie almost double the number of hospitalized.
The University Hospital of Northern Norway (UNN) department Tromsø is the hospital with the most admissions in the region. On Monday, 22 patients were admitted to Tromsø with coronavirus.
Communication consultant at UNN, Per-Christian Johansen, does not want to comment on the patients’ condition, but states that the vast majority are on a regular bed post.
– For the time being, we handle the situation with normal operation, but with increased preparedness so that we can follow the situation continuously from day to day, Johansen says to Dagbladet.
– Sharp increase in infection
Preparing employees
Currently, the only additional measure is an extra bed post for covid-19 patients. If the situation worsens, the hospital must consider whether to go down on other planned activities to get enough capacity for patients with corona.
– We have not had to reduce other activities now, but we are in a phase where we are preparing employees for a reallocation, says Johansen.
Despite the fact that infection rates and hospital admissions continue to increase, Johansen will not describe the situation as critical.
– Through a year and a half of pandemic, we have gained good experiences of how to deal with it. Our staff is also well trained to handle it.
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