(Oslo) No alcohol in bars or restaurants, acceleration of vaccination, generalization of teleworking … Norway unveiled a new set of health measures in the face of COVID-19 on Monday after the publication of alarming projections.
Without any measures – including those already in place – this Scandinavian country of 5.4 million inhabitants could record in three weeks between 90,000 and 300,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day and from 50 to 200 daily hospitalizations, warned the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) in the morning.
The high hypothesis of this range corresponds more or less to the number of people who have officially contracted the virus in Norway since the start of the pandemic, which reached 317,870 on Monday, including 1,136 who died from it.
“Now it’s serious,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said at a press conference called on short notice.
The continued spread of the Delta variant and the emergence of a new Omicron variant, deemed to be more contagious, could lead to “complete congestion of the health system”, he stressed.
Less than a week after strengthening health measures, the government has therefore tightened the screw again.
The serving of alcohol in bars and restaurants will be banned, although it was until now possible to do so until midnight.
This should spell the end of the traditionally watered parties organized by employers before Christmas. One of these “julebord” had turned into a focus of the Omicron variant at the end of November in Oslo.
Like the other measures, this ban will come into force overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday and will last four weeks until further notice.
Teleworking will be compulsory when possible, the obligation to wear a mask extended and access to public swimming pools and sports halls restricted to certain categories of the population. It is also recommended to cancel sports gatherings.
Vaccination will also be speeded up by reducing the interval between the second and third injections to 4.5 months for those over 45 and health workers. A reminder should have been offered to all people in these categories by mid-January.
Norway has been experiencing records of contaminations and hospitalizations for several days.
As of Monday, 958 cases of the Omicron variant had been detected in the country, including 472 in Oslo, according to the FHI.