Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Monday

Third Covid-19 vaccine probably not required 

It is unlikely that Norway will offer the population a third coronavirus jab, according to one of the country’s top doctors. 

Preben Avitsland, chief physician at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), said there is currently no evidence indicating that a third vaccine dose would be required, despite the spread of the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, which originated in India. 

“For the record: There is no data on the Indian (B.1.617) variant that indicates the population needs a third dose of the vaccine,” he said in a tweet.

In a recent risk assessment of B.1.617, the NIPH said that vaccines offer similar, albeit slightly less, protection against mild and severe disease when infected with the B.1.617 variant. 

So far, 40 cases of the variant have been detected in Norway. 

Significant rise in the use of diabetes drugs 

The use of blood-sugar-lowering drugs in Norway, most commonly used to treat diabetes, rose by a quarter between 2019 and 2020, according to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. 

This is potentially linked to an increase of diabetes in the Nordic country. 

“It is difficult to point to a clear reason for this increase. This may be due to a rise in the number of new cases of diabetes. But it could also be due to a change in the proportion of people with diabetes who are treated with blood-sugar-lowering drugs, Lars Christian Mørch Stene, diabetes researcher at the NIPH, said. 

Fewer believe the pandemic will have impact on climate change 

Just under half of people in Norway think that the coronavirus pandemic will have a positive effect on climate change in the short term, according to the Norwegian Corona Monitor from Opinion.

This is a drop of 15 percent compared to the same time last year. 

“The pandemic has demonstrated that the whole world can be quickly restructured if we have to. Nevertheless, fewer and fewer believe the pandemic will provide a crossroads for dealing with climate challenges,” Nora Clausen, senior advisor at opinion, said. 

Only 14 percent of those surveyed said that they believed that the pandemic would impact climate change in the long term. 

169 new Coronavirus infection in Norway

On Sunday, 169 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in Norway. This is a sharp decrease of 216 compared to the seven-day average of 385.

Cases tend to be lower on weekends. 

In Oslo, 24 new cases were registered. This is the lowest number of cases recorded in the capital for a single day since February. 

The R-number or reproduction rate in Norway is currently 1.0. This means that infections are at a steady level in Norway as for every ten people that are infected, they will, on average, only infect another ten people.

Total number of Covid-19 cases recorded. Source: NIPH