Now comes the verdict on Norway’s corona handling – VG

Will create debate

Kvinnsland will not say whether the commission agreed on everything, but he himself believes that it is a solid work that he hopes creates debate.

They have been following some issues until March this year.

– We are very concerned about March 12 and June 7, when the plans for reopening came. And we have been following it closely until well into the summer. Then it becomes more fragmentary and you select issues that you follow further, says Kvinnsland.

He says that some topics have been more difficult to go into because the pandemic is not over, but that they have justified and are responsible for the choices they have made.

– The moving targets have their problems, such as border infection, import infection and such things. There are things that come and go and evolve over time. It is not possible to answer in full until you have come a bit further.

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Looking at FHI quarrel

VG has previously shown how the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) and the Norwegian Directorate of Health chatted behind the scenes for almost two months when Norway closed down.

An NIPH memo sent to the commission warned of duplication of work, incorrect infection advice, unclear roles and accused both the Norwegian Directorate of Health and the Ministry of Health of lack of infection control competence

– NIPH and the Norwegian Directorate of Health are two crucial agencies in this type of crisis. It is quite obvious a question of how they have worked and whether it has nodded and gnawed, says Kvinnsland.

To health director Bjørn Guldvog told VG that it can again be useful to look at who is responsible for what.

– Do you want to give concrete advice?

– You have to wait and see, says Kvinnsland.

– Very many issues

Originally, the Korona Commission was to submit two interim reports. But on Wednesday, the final verdict will come from the commission.

– Should there be a volume 2?

– It is not up to me to assess. But there are very many issues that have not necessarily been completed and assessed, because it is a moving goal all the time and will last for a while longer, says Kvinnsland.

– Do you think it is useful that you receive a complete report before the Storting election?

– I have no idea. But I think there is a lot in the report that can be useful, useful for improvements.

– Are we going to discuss it for a long time?

– I hope so.

VG has sought access to all documents sent to and from the commission, but parts of this have been exempt from public access. The same has minutes from interviews with health leaders and government members.

The orders the commission has sent to ministries, agencies and municipalities can nevertheless provide an indication of topics that may be relevant in the report:

Closure of schools and kindergartens

The Commission has been particularly interested in the kind of assessments that formed the basis for closing schools and kindergartens on 12 March 2020, according to questions sent to the Ministry of Education.

Among other things, they have asked the ministry to elaborate on how they followed up on recommendations from the Norwegian Directorate of Education, sent the same day, to close.

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Emergency preparedness and staffing

Both Østfold Hospital and Helse Bergen have provided feedback to the commission.

Both health trusts point out staffing as the biggest challenge for hospitals: More concrete lack of intensive capacity.

The lack of infection control equipment is also pervasive. “Only at the beginning of May did they have good control of infection control equipment,” Østfold Hospital wrote to the commission.

Questions related to emergency preparedness are also repeated in the commission’s orders to the Norwegian Directorate of Health, where they request reports from the State Administrators on emergency preparedness in the municipalities.

Vulnerable children

Through several articles, VG has highlighted how vulnerable children are has paid a high price for the corona measures.

This is also highlighted through situation reports and vulnerability analyzes that the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs has sent to the commission.

For example, in a situation report in April 2020, Bufdir describes a “concern that the child welfare services do not meet children physically”, and points out that “the number of reports of concern is declining somewhat”.

Local infection control measures

The commission has also been concerned with local infection control measures in the municipalities. Meeting minutes sent from the state administrators show that infection-free municipalities at the beginning of the pandemic pressured to introduce local measures – as the controversial Søring quarantine.

The state administrators have been asked by the commission to answer whether they carried out legality checks with these measures.

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