– I was surprised when you told it. Basically, I follow closely, and we have seen a significant increase in infection in week 20, but that the R-number should be so high in week 19 … It was tremendous.
When Dagbladet contacted county doctor in Trøndelag, Jan Vaage, on Wednesday afternoon, he was not aware that the R-number, or the reproduction number in the county, was 1.6.
The number shows how many people a person passes on. If R is 1, each infected person will on average infect another person.
– This only illustrates how fast the coronavirus can spread, says Vaage.
Several routes of infection
According to FHI’s weekly report for week 19, Trøndelag is the county in the country with the highest R-number, but even if the infection numbers rise, Vaage has great faith that it will be possible to reduce the infection again.
– We have had a few rounds before where Trøndelag has been out of sync from the rest of the country, but experience indicates that the municipalities have been very efficient and quick to put down the outbreaks.
– A confusing situation
– How long do you think it will take to get the infection down again?
– From what we have seen before, it has varied a bit, but I think it will take two to three weeks. What is more worrying now is that we have more routes of infection than before, says Vaage.
56 cases in three days
Most of the cases originate from the county capital Trondheim.
In the last 24 hours, 24 new cases have been registered in the municipality, and since Monday, a total of 56 cases of infection have been reported in Trondheim.
MUCH INFECTION: Trondheim is one of the cities in Norway where the increase in infection is greatest right now. Photo: PhotoVisions / Shutterstock / NTB
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Then the government Wednesday night presented the 24 municipalities which received an increased number of vaccine doses, the capital of Trøndelag was not among these municipalities. Trondheim is among the municipalities that also do not have to give vaccine doses, but are still given vaccines in line with the population size.
– The municipality also does not get a smaller number of vaccines, so that’s fine. As for the 13 other municipalities in the county, there is still great uncertainty about how many fewer vaccines they will receive, so we will have to wait and see what solution FHI comes up with, says county doctor Vaage.
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Reactions
The municipalities that receive fewer vaccine doses in June will take it again in July and August.
Due to the joint holiday, this has led to reactions, where the municipalities believe the strategy can lead to logistics problems. Among other things, the State Administrator in Troms and Finnmark reacted:
“Several municipalities are worried that they will not be able to provide enough personnel to carry out proper vaccination as they have already planned staffing for the summer months. The challenges are, among other things, that an already planned capacity for the month of June will be less utilized, and that unfortunate measures may have to be used, such as orders from planned holidays and a reduction in competence requirements for vaccination ».
Minister of Health and Care Services Bent Høie (H), for his part, understands the reactions, and understands that the way of thinking can lead to challenges, but also said that the government will look at the possibilities of helping with personnel across the municipalities.
At present, however, there is no concrete plan for how this will be resolved.
Do not have a plan in place
– Must trust the decisions
Vaage does not yet want to answer whether this strategy will create problems for Trøndelag.
– First we have to sit down with the municipalities and look at how this can be solved during the joint holiday. No matter what conclusion we come to, we must trust that the decisions that are reached give the best outcome nationally. After all, that’s the most important thing.
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