Corona – – Too early to conclude

Last Saturday, the jubilation could be unleashed. Norway reopened, and many celebrated this past weekend.

In the past week, many also started hugging each other. Every second Norwegian responds in a recent survey by Norway’s Corona Monitoring Agency that they gave a hug to someone they don’t live with, NTB writes.

Although the virus did not go away, the celebration of the reopening did not have any negative impact on infection or hospitalization. Preben Avetsland, chief medical officer and professor at the National Institute of Public Health, wrote this in an email to Dagbladet.

– Too early to evaluate

After the last restrictions were removed on Saturday, September 25, we did not see any negative effects on the number of confirmed cases or the number of new admissions, says Aavitsland.

In the past seven days, an average of 524 cases of corona were recorded daily. The corresponding average seven days ago was 684, so the trend is declining.

When Dagbladet asked him if it was safe to say the reopening went well, he replied that it was too early to say.

It is still too early to assess the full impact. Therefore, it is too early to conclude, he writes and adds:

– We expected things to go well now that vaccination coverage is very high.

As of October 4, 4.1 million Norwegians have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. He received 3.6 million second doses. Thus 77.3 percent of the population got the first dose, while 67.9 percent of the population got the full vaccination, according to the NTB.

When asked when he thought it possible to conclude, Aavitsland replied:

– We know a lot this weekend.

Declare a new delta variant

No effect of reopening

The infection peaked in Oslo on August 30 this year, with 680 cases recorded in one day. 121 new cases of corona were recorded in Oslo during the past 24 hours. There are three more than the same day last week, and 15 more than on Saturday.

In the past two weeks, an average of 194 infections were recorded per day.

– The infection in Oslo continues to decline and we cannot see that the reopening has had an effect here. There was no noticeable increase in activities related to TISK (testing, isolation, infection tracing and quarantine) after reopening, says Miert Skjoldborg Lindboe, assistant chief municipal physician in Oslo municipality, in an email to Dagbladet.

Skjoldborg Lindboe says infection is highest among the unvaccinated.

We still recommend that everyone aged 12 and over who has not been vaccinated do so now. The municipality of Oslo vaccinates during the autumn vacation, and it has a good capacity.