At least 10 cases of swine flu have been diagnosed among the 650 asylum seekers living temporarily at a convention center at Stokke in Vestfold. Local health officials fear far more are infected, and have decided that no one staying at the makeshift asylum center will be moved for now.
“The vast majority don’t get very sick at all and probably don’t even seek out a doctor,” Dr Tore Arne Martinsen, municipal physician for Stokke, told state broadcaster NRK on Monday. He downplayed any danger of asylum seekers infecting local residents of Stokke.
“We can’t confine people to the center, that would be too drastic,” Martinsen told NRK. “But I don’t see much danger of contagion to residents of Stokke.” He said information about the flu and the outbreak had been circulated in English among residents.
Martinsen also said that employees at the convention center were being vaccinated against the H1N1 swine flue virus, as were children living at the center.
newsinenglish.no staff
