A new daily infection record was set in Norway on Tuesday, with almost 8,000 new registered cases. 

In the last 24 hours, 7,921 corona infection cases have been registered in Norway. The number of cases is the highest recorded in a single day so far in the pandemic.

Espen Nakstad, assistant director of the Norwegian Directorate of Health, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that he thinks that the real number could be much higher.

The previous peak of infection was registered on December 14, with 6,003 cases.

Increase in infection expected

An increase in infection is expected in January because fewer people tested themselves in the last two weeks of December and because people are returning to everyday life.

“We expect that the infection will increase now, mainly due to omicron,” Nakstad told the newspaper VG.

He told the newspaper Dagbladet that measures, testing, and the effect of the booster dose will determine the size of the wave in Norway.

Immunologist and professor of medicine, Anne Spurkland, told NRK that the current infection rates are as expected.

“I really think these are low numbers, because there can be a lot of under-reporting. I think the wave is bigger than what we see now,” Spurkland said.

The January wave

Technical director Frode Forland at the FHI told TV 2 that Norway must prepare for the start of the January wave. The reason is that omicron has become the dominant virus variant in Norway.

In week 52, omicron accounted for 65.4% of all analyzed cases.

Although it seems that most fully vaccinated people do not become seriously ill from the omicron variant, Forland still believes there is cause for concern.

“It is this steep increase in infection rates that will lead to many inpatients two to three weeks later, which is the challenge. The fact that many people will then also have to be quarantined and be ill can lead to challenges for the operation of critical societal functions in the future.”

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

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