The school yard was supposed to be teeming with children gearing up for the Christmas holidays. Wild eyes. Joyful screams. But outside Frakkagjerd secondary school in Tysvær it is as quiet as death. It’s inside too. The school has been closed since Tuesday. More than half of the employees are at home with an infection. – Many of them have corona. And then the venereal disease has come full circle, and the flu – in any case, a bad cold, says principal Monica Bjoland Andersen. Monica Bjoland Andersen, principal at Frakkagjerd secondary school. Photo: Thomas Ystrøm / news The infection burns through the entire Norwegian population, confirms the Directorate of Health: 200 new people are infected by covid-19 every week, and the same number are infected with influenza and the RS virus. On top come other respiratory infections. The hospitals in Vestre Viken and Stavanger University Hospital have gone into green alert due to illness among the employees. In addition, the hospitals report an increase in the number of patients with respiratory infections. Ticked in messages It was at the weekend that principal Bjoland Andersen noticed it. Something was going on. Messages from sick teachers started to come in. The headmaster worked frantically to get an overview of the casualties and found out that the oldest pupils had to be home on Monday. But on Monday several of the teachers started coughing and wheezing in the hallways at school and they too had to go home. Bjoland Andersen didn’t feel she had a choice: She had to close the school completely. – Closing down a school is far from over. After all, we have had corona and I think it holds up, she says. And on Tuesday it was principal Bjoland Andersen’s turn. – I was actually lying down, but managed to manage most things from the couch and bed. It was eerily quiet in the school yard at Frakkagjerd secondary school on Wednesday. Photo: Thomas Ystrøm / news Waiting for the top in the new year Fortunately, assistant director of health Espen Rostrup Nakstad is supportive – for now. – Right now there is a lot of infection – both with covid and flu, he says. Nakstad does not think we will see the peak of flu infection until the middle or end of January. – It looks like the increase is steepest when it comes to influenza, where we are far from the top. But the covid infection seems to be stabilizing a bit. – What should people do to avoid getting sick at Christmas? – The most important advice is to stay at home when you are sick. Then you don’t infect colleagues and others, you contribute to lower sickness absence and protect those who are most at risk of getting sick, he says. Assistant director of health Espen Rostrup Nakstad. Photo: Ksenia Novikova / news Nakstad is also asking people to find the packs of masks again. – If you get sick and know you are contagious, but still have to go to the doctor, pharmacy or shop, it is important that you wear a mask. Then you protect others from infection. Strict measures not appropriate However, it is not appropriate to introduce new strict measures, according to the assistant director of health. – If everyone follows the advice to stay at home when they are sick, then you won’t get so many others infected. Then an order for face masks in public spaces will also be unnecessary. And at the same time, an advice about wearing a mask can make people stop staying at home and instead take a mask with them, or that compliance is weakened. So it is not certain that an advice on face masks for the entire population will improve infection control. Nakstad further asks that people in the risk group, i.e. those over 65 and who have underlying illnesses, to get tested and contact a doctor if the result is positive. – Then the doctor can consider a prescription for tablet treatment for covid-19, he says.
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