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Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday

Frazer Norwell
Frazer Norwell - [email protected]
Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday
A beach surrounded by mountain tops in Northern Norway. Photo by Julien Lavallée on Unsplash "

Find out what’s going on in Norway on Thursday with The Local’s short roundup of important news.

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Norway to be added to UK green travel list

The UK government said late Wednesday it will ease English entry rules for arrivals from Norway.

Norway was previously classed as amber by the UK government, which meant only fully vaccinated arrivals could avoid mandatory quarantine.

Now that Norway has been promoted to the green list travellers must only take Covid-19 tests before and after entering England, regardless of their vaccination status, and do not have to self-isolate.

They must pre-book Covid tests for day two after arriving and only children aged 4 and under don’t need to take them. Those travellers only need to self-isolate if they test positive after arriving.

The change comes into force on Sunday at 4am and was announced by Britain’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on Wednesday night.

Norway could be on the cusp of a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections

Infections in Norway have increased by 45 percent in the last week, with infection spreading primarily amongst young people who haven’t been vaccinated yet.

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Espen Nakstad, assistant director of the Norwegian Directorate of Health, believes that Norway is now on the verge of a fourth coronavirus wave.

“We probably see now that we are at the start of a fourth wave of infection,” Espen Nakstad told state broadcaster NRK.

The National Institute of Public Health’s (NIPH) latest weekly report has highlighted West Norway, parts of North Norway and Oslo as the areas with the highest infection rates in Norway at the moment.

READ ALSO: Why rising Covid infections in Norway won’t lead to tougher national restrictions

Despite this, Nakstad still believes Norway is in a good position overall and doesn’t believe that a fourth wave of infection will have the same impact as the previous three.

“Norway is basically in a very good situation because very many people seem to be vaccinated,” he told the broadcaster.

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People in Norway less worried about becoming infected with Covid

Norwegians are less worried about contracting coronavirus, the latest Norwegian Corona Monitor from data collection firm Opinion has revealed.

In addition to this, those who responded to the survey believe that the pandemic will become a long-lasting issue and for the past seven weeks respondents to the survey have said they expect infections to rise.

Even though many are expecting infections to rise less than a third of people who answered the survey said they were worried about catching Covid. This is the lowest proportion reported this year.

Furthermore, just under half said they were concerned about a family member becoming infected.

478 new Covid-19 infections registered in Norway

On Wednesday, 478 new cases of infection with Covid-19 were registered in Norway. This is an increase of 139 compared to the seven-day average of 339.

In Oslo, 81 coronavirus infections were recorded, the highest daily number since the beginning of June.

Total number of Covid-19 cases in Norway. Source: NIPH

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