Last week, 596 new cases of corona infection were registered in Oslo, up from 319 the week before. The situation is still uncertain, Espen Nakstad warns.

The infection rates in Oslo thus rose as much as 87% from week 21 to week 22, according to the Municipality’s figures.

A large outbreak of COVID-19 among celebrating school graduates (russ) in western Oslo is a major contributor to the figures.  

The district of Vestre Aker now has the highest infection pressure, with a level of 269.6 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks. 

On the other hand, the infection has fallen sharply in the eastern parts of the city, which have been given priority in vaccination after a long period of high infection.

Still concerned

Assistant Director of Health, Espen Nakstad, believes the biggest concern now is that the infection can spread further from the school graduates to the unvaccinated in the parent generation. But the graduates are tested regularly, and it should be possible to keep control, he stated.

“At the same time, there is uncertainty associated with the situation in Eastern Norway. We are still concerned that especially younger age groups can contribute to a good deal of the spread of infection,” Nakstad told news bureau NTB.

The age group 10–19 years has stood out strongly in Oslo in the last two weeks with significantly higher infections than other age groups. Nakstad nevertheless reminds people that the infection as a whole is not particularly high in Oslo now.

Hoping for further reopening

At the same time, infection rates nationally have gone in the opposite direction. In week 22, 1,993 new cases of infection were reported. That is a reduction of 17% from 2,410 cases of infection in week 21. NTB has taken the figures reported to the national database MSIS just after midnight every day as its starting point.

“It looks like we are now starting to get more control both in Trondheim and other places where we have struggled with outbreaks,” Nakstad stated.

“It bodes well that we can start the further reopening process,” he added. 

A decision on the next step in the reopening can probably be expected by next week.

Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews

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