Authorities are concerned by the high numbers of infections from migrants returning to Norway after travelling to their home countries on holiday, with as many as one in four arriving aircraft carrying passengers infected with the Wuhan virus.
Concerns have been raised over the high number of cases among migrants returning from countries like Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and authorities have advised against unnecessary travel.
Even more troubling is the fact that 80 per cent of the positive coronavirus cases among the migrants have been revealed to be more potent variants of the disease, newspaper Berlingske reports.
Workers at Oslo airport have also claimed that many migrants have simply refused testing after arriving back in the country.
To stop the spread of the virus, including its stronger variants, Norwegian authorities have begun to work with medical professionals with migration backgrounds, such as Pakistan-born doctor Usman Mushtaq, who encourages people on social media not to travel.
Almost Half of Swedish Coronavirus ICU Patients are Migrants https://t.co/QP2BXfHBsJ
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 27, 2020
According to Berlingske, 57 per cent of the patients hospitalised due to the Wuhan virus in Norway were born abroad.
Statistics from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health also claim that 16 per cent of migrants from Pakistan living in Norway have tested positive for the disease after self-testing. The number of Somali migrants who tested positive was similarly high at 14 per cent.
Around 2.5 per cent of foreign-born people living in Norway have tested positive for coronavirus overall, compared to just one per cent of those born in Norway.
Other Scandinavian countries have reported similar trends among their migration-background residents during the pandemic, with Finland’s National Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) stating in December that a quarter of all cases involved those who are not native speakers of Finnish.
In Sweden, nearly half of the patients in intensive care units (ICU) in December were migrants or from migration backgrounds. Migrants are also said to account for nearly half of those who have died of the virus under the age of 65.
Quarter of Finland’s Coronavirus Cases Involve Foreign Language Speakers https://t.co/nzcdWOamdZ
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 2, 2020
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