Announces new measures: – Arguments in favor of national measures strengthened

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told TV 2 it was dangerous to have a viral variant whose spread is not known.

– We should take this seriously. Should such a situation happen to us, we must make sure that there is isolation and no spread.

Do we need major national action now?

– You’ll hear about it tomorrow. We have a clear message when I explain tomorrow. Both what we do nationwide and the vaccination strategy. Vaccination is the most important thing we can do nationally and in municipalities. I also think that with the new virus, if it reaches Norway, vaccination is a key strategy.

– Will there be more action tomorrow?

There will be proceedings tomorrow, says Gere Stoer.

Suggest necessary measures

Health Director Björn Goldvog says the measures could come after what came Monday, namely testing, isolation and quarantine.

– After that, there will be talk about the measures that we can take at the borders, and what are the relevant national measures to delay the new alternative. We have suggested the necessary actions in the first stage.

He adds that it does not fit with the closure of society now.

We have much better protection for the population, and most of all to quickly vaccinate everyone over 65 and health workers with a third dose. Until the risk of serious illness goes down, Guldvog says.

The arguments in favor of national measures have been strengthened

Guldvog further says that these are new procedures discussed and recorded earlier.

But the question then is whether the government should decide whether it should be applied at the national, regional or local level. It’s about bandages and homework, for example.

– Do you think it is time for national action?

– I think the arguments in favor of national measures have been strengthened in recent days with the use of Omicron. It is important to get a clear message across to the population, so that everyone is aware of what applies.

Will we notice this in everyday life?

We are looking for measures that are not primarily intrusive in terms of business and culture and also minimal tourism. It is possible to find good measures that are not too intrusive and have significant social and economic consequences.

Could be in Norway

Camilla Stoltenberg, director of FHI, told TV 2 that omikron may have already arrived in Norway.

– It happens that there are other laboratories that confirm this and inform us of it. They do it very quickly. We are willing for you to be in Norway, although we don’t have any confirmed cases.

– It’s a matter of time. Do we talk for hours and days before it happens in Norway?

– We must reckon with yes, and we must reckon that he is already in Norway. It may also be in other countries for a longer period of time. It is being discovered now because it becomes easy.

proven in sweden

The Omicron case has been proven in Sweden, the variant was detected in a sample taken just over a week ago from a person living in Scania.

The person recently returned from his residence in South Africa and the sample was arranged under the ongoing national coronavirus surveillance.

– It was expected that we will be able to prove the variant also in Sweden, because it has been detected in many other countries in Europe. The information we have about the alternative means we have to take it seriously until we have more knowledge, says Karin Tegmark Wisell, director of the Swedish Public Health Agency.

Suspected of several cases

It was also confirmed that two people who arrived in Jönköping in Sweden from South Africa were infected with the Corona virus. Sweden’s health authorities fear that they, too, may have the omicron variant.

Samples have been sent to a Public Health Authority lab for sequencing, city infection control chief Malin Bengener tells today’s news.

Those infected have been told to go into isolation, and infection detection is still ongoing.

There are also two suspected cases of the new omikron variant in Finland, according to the Finnish Institute of Public Health.

Local authorities have ordered the two people to self-isolate and draw up their close contacts, according to the Finnish Institute of Public Health (THL).

In both suspected cases, the infected had contact abroad. THL will not identify the countries involved until it is confirmed that the cases are from the omicron variant.

THL says test results from the two infected people will come in within a week.