Norway has passed 500,000 registered cases of infection
A total of 504,789 people have now tested positive for corona in Norway, according to the National Institute of Public Health. It happens barely a year after the first case of infection in the country was registered on 26 February 2020.
In the last week, three new infection records have been set. The preliminary peak came on Saturday, when 12,360 new cases were registered.
In the last seven days, an average of 9,229 corona infections have been registered per day.
The corresponding average seven days ago was 6,145, so the trend is rising.
On Saturday, 228 corona patients were hospitalized. There were 24 fewer than the day before.
79 of the patients are in the intensive care unit, and 55 of them receive respiratory treatment. There is one more on intensive care and three fewer on a respirator compared with the day before, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s overview.
A total of 1,381 corona-infected people have died in Norway since March 2020, preliminary figures show.
Reopening became new measures
After Norway celebrated the reopening last autumn, there were again strict infection control measures before Christmas when the delta variants of the virus damaged the pressure on the hospitals at the same time as the more contagious omicron variant came.
It is the omicron variant that is to blame for the sharp growth in infection rates we have seen in January.
However, the health authorities believe that the risk of becoming seriously ill from the omicron variant is far less than with the delta variant and it is uncertain how much pressure on the wave of infection we are now in will put on the hospitals.
Top in February
According to the National Institute of Public Health, we will see pressure on hospitals reach a peak in February.
– The Norwegian Institute of Public Health expects a significant winter wave from the pandemic in Norway in January – March. Hundreds of thousands will be infected. An omicon-driven winter wave is not possible to stop, but it may be possible to dampen the top of it, writes FHI in its latest risk assessment.
It summarizes that very strong contact-reducing measures are required to put down this winter wave.
– The wave can grow again as soon as the measures are removed. The management through the winter wave is therefore about slowing down the epidemic – with the least possible intervention measures – so that the simultaneous burden of disease and the burden on the health service and society does not become intolerable, writes FHI.