There could be the biggest known single outbreak of the new Coronavirus if the dozens of people who attended a work Christmas party in Norway are tested positive for Omicron.
A COVID PCR test was performed on fifty employees from Scatec, an energy company that specializes in renewable energy, who all tested positive after the party in Oslo on November 26. According to NRK, lateral flow tests revealed another ten have tested positive.
According to the Oslo Municipality, one case of Omicron has been confirmed, and the municipality expects an increase in cases following Thursday’s event.
This would make this outbreak of Omicron the largest ever recorded in history.
Some of Scatec’s staff had recently been in Cape Town, South Africa, where the company builds, owns, and operates solar energy plants.
Following the first report of the new variant, several countries banned flights into and out of South Africa. Currently, experts are investigating whether the virus is transmissible.
An initial screening had revealed that there was a “high probability” of finding Omicron at Scatec, according to Tine Ravlo, assistant district superintendent in the Norwegian capital’s Frogner District.
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Sequencing has been conducted on the samples, which should reveal whether it is the new variant.
It has been said that Infected people will be placed in isolation for seven days, while those in contact with them will be tracked. So far, only mild symptoms have been reported by those infected, Ravlo disclosed.
According to Norwegian media reports, attendants to the party were required to be vaccinated and to test negative for COVID.
Forty-one of the infected residents live in the Oslo area, and the others live in other municipalities.
Before the Event, the Results were Negative
According to E24, Stian Tvede Karlsen, Scatec’s communications manager, there were no participants who had been infected with Coronavirus prior to the party.
Tests are being administered to everyone who has been in the restaurant since Friday night.
The same can be said of those who visited the Old Irish Pub in Majorstua the next day since one party guest walked there the next day.
According to the Norwegian health ministry, the two first cases of the novel variant of the Omicron coronavirus were first identified in Oeygarden municipality on Wednesday.
Two people infected with the Omricon variant had arrived from South Africa, as such travelers are quarantined upon arrival in Norway.
New measures were announced recently by Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere, as Reuters reported. They include mandatory face masks and accelerating booster vaccinations.
