Health authorities investigate whether pericarditis is linked to the Pfizer and Moderna Coronavirus vaccines

The Norwegian Medicines Agency (NMA) was looking into whether cases of pericarditis, the swelling of the tissue that surrounds the heart, are linked to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

Seven cases of acute pericarditis, symptoms include sharp chest pain, have been reported so far as suspected side effects to the vaccines.

Six of the cases occurred between one and three weeks after taking the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine and the other case occurred within the same time frame after receiving a dose of the Moderna vaccine, newspaper Bergens Tidende is reporting.

READ ALSO: Norway considers lifting measures for people who have had their first Covid vaccine 

The patients were all aged between 28 and 87 years old, six men and one woman.

They were hospitalised with a combination of heavy breathing, chest pain and pain in the shoulders.

Steiner Madsen, medical director at the NMA, said that it is too soon to say whether the cases can be directly linked to the vaccines.

He also added there is no need for people to worry.

While pericarditis is painful it is easy to treat, however in some cases it can be serious, according to helsenorge.

Norway’s largest financial group slapped with 400 million kroner fine

DNB has received a 400 million kroner fine following an audit.

The audit was conducted by The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway in February last year.

The audit investigated DNB’s compliance with money laundering regulations.

“The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway’s investigation shows that DNB has had extensive shortcomings in compliance with money laundering regulations over many years,” the audit found.

DNB is not suspected of being complicit of compliant with money laundering, instead the verdict regards whether money laundering regulations were followed in its dealings with various companies across the Samherji group. 

DNB has accepted the fine and said that it takes the verdict very seriously.

“The fight against money laundering is at the very top of the board’s priority list. The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway is right that we have areas we need to improve on, but we have also made major improvements in recent years,” DNB said.

Only half of foreigners arriving in Norway respond to infection trackers calls

Around half of all foreign arrivals respond to The National Control Centre for Immigrants, which is responsible for contacting everyone who arrives in Norway, state broadcaster NRK is reporting.

The centre is responsible for checking arrivals in Norway adhere to testing and quarantine rules.

However, only half of the 150,000 arrivals have responded to the centres calls since February.

Everyone who arrives in Norway also receives two text messages from authorities. So far 360,000 messages have been sent.

Assistant Director of Health at the Norwegian Directorate of Health, Espen Nakstad, said that the amount of people interacting with the control centre is a positive.

“Half respond, and the authorities make sure they are well informed. The rest receive text messages, so they are informed. You’d probably want to get even more people, but half is better than nothing,” he said.

Married couple who refused to enter a quarantine hotel after trip to Spain fined 20,000 kroner

A husband and wife in their 60’s have been fined 20,000 kroner each after refusing to enter a quarantine hotel.

Current restrictions mean anybody returning from a trip that isn’t deemed necessary must spend at least seven of a ten-day quarantine period in a quarantine hotel.

“The trip was not considered a necessary trip, and both were supposed to follow the rules and spend ten days in a quarantine hotel. The couple refused to cooperate and have now been fined,” police said in a statement.

Covid-19 infection rates fall 11 percent

In the last week, the number of registered Coronavirus infections fell 11 percent last week, compared to the week before.

Two weeks ago, 3,209 infections were registered compared to 2,857 last week. The average number of daily cases has dropped from 443 to 408.

In Oslo infections fell 13.4 percent in the same time period. The number of infections has fallen from 912 cases two weeks ago to 790.