Norway reopening

Kids are returning to school and society gradually moving back to a state of normality.

“Thanks to our joint efforts since March, we have got the spreading of infection under control,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg said in a press conference on Thursday.

“Our objective is that as many as possible of the activities and companies that have been closed can reopen before summer,” she underlined.

The positive measures come after almost two months of stringent shutdown of society. Following the coronavirus outbreak, Norway on the 12th March introduced the country’s most dramatic ever peace-time encroachment on public freedoms.

Since then, the virus situation in the Nordic country has gradually improved, and on 6th April national health authorities announced that the outbreak was under control.

From Monday 11 May, all schools except colleges and universities will reopen. Also sport activities are resuming and sport halls again opening their doors. The maximum number of people that can assemble without any organized event is increased to 20. They will have to keep a one-meter distance between each other.

Traveling abroad remains not recommended and people who cross into the country will have to undergo at least 10 days of quarantine.

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A series of additional measures will take effect in June.

However, the country’s government warns against renewed virus outbreaks and says a new round of restrictions could be introduced if infections again hike.

“If infections flare up again, we might not be able to relax the measures as planned,” Prime Minister Solberg says.

By 8th May, a total of 7,995 Norwegians were registered as carriers of the virus. Of them, 34 are in hospital.

A total of 209 people have died of the virus. The country’s health authorities have tested 191,946 individuals, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health informs.