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Norway enters fourth Covid-19 wave, warns health chief

Norway is currently in the middle of a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections, Espen Nakstad, assistant director of health at the Norwegian Directorate of Health, said Wednesday.

Published: 25 August 2021 16:43 CEST
Norway enters fourth Covid-19 wave, warns health chief
A crowd outside the Norwegian parliament building. Photo by Gunnar Ridderström on Unsplash

On Tuesday, Norway recorded the highest daily number of infections, 1093, since the peak of the third wave in March following weeks of rising infections. 

As a result, the assistant director of health at the Norwegian Directorate of Health, Espen Nakstad, has said that Norway is currently in a fourth wave of coronavirus infections. 

“We are definitely in a fourth wave of infection now, but the vaccination rates mean that we currently do not have a large wave of hospital admissions as of today,” Nakstad told newspaper Dagbladet. 

Currently, 52 people have been admitted to hospitals in Norway with Covid-19, and 16 patients are receiving intensive care, according to the latest figures from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). 

Health experts have predicted a rise in Covid cases for weeks, and earlier this week, Nakstad said he expected coronavirus infections to reach 1,300 per day by early September. 

READ ALSO: Report claims Norway has overpaid for Covid-19 vaccines

Over the past few weeks, health authorities have said rising infection rates in Norway are currently not as serious as they would have been during previous waves of infection due to high vaccine rates in Norway, ensuring the number of hospital admissions remains low as cases rise. 

Just under 90 percent of people aged over 18 have received their first vaccine jab while 60 percent are fully vaccinated. 

Nakstad has echoed this but also urged people to do their best to keep infections under control to ensure that there isn’t a surge of hospital admissions. 

“Nevertheless, it is important to keep control so that not so many people become infected that the admission numbers also increase a lot,” Nakstad said. 

The Norwegian government has said it would lift the last remaining measures once everyone over 18 had received their second coronavirus vaccine jab. The NIPH has previously said it expects this to happen around the 12th of September. 

Municipalities will still be able to introduce their own rules on measures such as facemasks and social distancing once national restrictions end. 

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HEALTH

Covid-19 still causing 1,000 deaths a week in Europe, WHO warns

The World Health Organization's European office warned on Tuesday the risk of Covid-19 has not gone away, saying it was still responsible for nearly 1,000 deaths a week in the region. And the real figure may be much higher.

Published: 27 June 2023 13:27 CEST
Covid-19 still causing 1,000 deaths a week in Europe, WHO warns

The global health body on May 5 announced that the Covid-19 pandemic was no longer deemed a “global health emergency.”

“Whilst it may not be a global public health emergency, however, Covid-19 has not gone away,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge told reporters.

The WHO’s European region comprises 53 countries, including several in central Asia.

“Close to 1,000 new Covid-19 deaths continue to occur across the region every week, and this is an underestimate due to a drop in countries regularly reporting Covid-19 deaths to WHO,” Kluge added, and urged authorities to ensure vaccination coverage of at least 70 percent for vulnerable groups.

Kluge also said estimates showed that one in 30, or some 36 million people, in the region had experienced so called “long Covid” in the last three years, which “remains a complex condition we still know very little about.”

“Unless we develop comprehensive diagnostics and treatment for long Covid, we will never truly recover from the pandemic,” Kluge said, encouraging more research in the area which he called an under-recognised condition.

Most countries in Europe have dropped all Covid safety restrictions but some face mask rules remain in place in certain countries in places like hospitals.

Although Spain announced this week that face masks will no longer be required in certain healthcare settings, including hospitals and pharmacies, with a couple of exceptions.

Sweden will from July 1st remove some of its remaining Covid recommendations for the public, including advice to stay home and avoid close contact with others if you’re ill or have Covid symptoms.

The health body also urged vigilance in the face of a resurgence of mpox, having recorded 22 new cases across the region in May, and the health impact of heat waves.

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