– It looks like it will be a better fall than last year – VG

In Europe, there are now 15 countries with a rising trend of infection, According to VG . Overview, despite the fact that many of these have vaccinated more than half the population.

The reason is the more contagious delta type, as now It dominates in large parts of Europe. It is estimated that vaccines provide Less protection against the new variant, And in England, the health authorities state that About one in five patients with corona are fully vaccinated.

In its most recent weekly report, the International Family Health Organization concluded that The virus variant is also prevalent in Norway. Although 32 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, there have been several localized outbreaks recently, including in Vesterålen and in Gran Municipality.

However, Assistant Director of Health Espen Nakstad believes that any outbreak in this country will have fewer consequences than in countries with low vaccine coverage, and notes, among other things, that the number of hospital admissions has remained low.

“It looks like it’s going to be a better fall than it was last year, and I think we should be happy about that,” he told VG.

Here he answers some of the most relevant questions related to Corona this summer:

Doesn’t need to create a lot of problems

Nakstad believes the reason we’re seeing a growing trend in parts of Europe is that many countries are reopening society again, as well as the fact that it’s the delta-contagious type that’s spreading.

But he notes that the infection appears to be spread mainly among children and young adults, as well as among the unvaccinated.

– It remains to be seen how important this is in cases of serious illness. One thing is that many are infected now, but as long as this infection doesn’t spread to unvaccinated people, especially those who are a little older, higher infection rates in and of themselves don’t need to create much of a problem, he tells VG.

When asked why one now sees complete vaccination among the UK’s Corona inmates, Nakstad points to several reasons:

– Two doses of the vaccine usually protect against serious diseases, but it is not one hundred percent protection – it is ninety percent.

This means that if fifty thousand are infected every day, as in the UK, and a large number of fully vaccinated people are also infected, there will be some people who end up in hospital as well. So it’s simply a result of the vaccine not being one hundred percent, and that many of them are infected, says the assistant director of health.

Finally, he notes that the UK has vaccinated a larger proportion of the population with the vector-based AstraZeneca vaccine, making it difficult to compare the numbers directly with Norway, which primarily used Pfizer and Moderna.

High degree of immunity of the population

Nakstad believes that we will eventually find ourselves in a situation where Norway becomes one of the countries in the world with the best population immunity to the Corona virus in the world, where there is a lot of support for a vaccine.

In June, the International Family Health Organization reported that More than 90 percent of Norwegians accept the vaccine offer.

– This means that the consequences of any infection outbreaks this fall will be much less in Norway than in countries with small vaccine coverage, so we have many advantages, he tells VG.

The assistant director of health notes that many countries in Europe have far less vaccine support, and any outbreaks of infection are likely to deteriorate differently there.

– Then he said that the wave of infection among young people that spreads to the elderly will actually have a very big impact on hospitals and serious illness.

– What about those who are vaccinated and think that it is not dangerous to become infected?

– What I think you should keep in mind is that if you are fully vaccinated, you are well protected from getting seriously ill, but you still have to take care of others, says Nakstad.

– It also adds those who can’t get vaccinated.