Hammerfest hospital partly closed due to COVID-19 outbreak
25 cases of COVID-19 are confirmed in Hammerfest in northernmost Norway. 15 of the infected are hospital employees.
Planned operations and treatments are put on hold, all employees are to be tested and many are quarantined, the regional healthcare Helse Nord informs.
Only emergency patients are excepted to the hospital. Intensive care nurses and doctors from other hospitals in northern Norway have arrived in Hammerfest to fill the positions of those now infected or quarantined.
New, non-emergency medical patients are meanwhile sent to the hospitals in Kirkenes and Tromsø for treatment.
Northernmost Norway has for the most had very few COVID-19 cases since the epidemic began, but now sees a sharper increase. The number of cumulative cases for the country of Troms and Finnmark reached 441 by October 20.
Additional to Hammerfest, also Alta and a few other municipalities in the Finnmark region have got confirmed cases with coronavirus over the last few days.
The total reported cases in Norway as such are 16,771 with 279 deaths.
