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

Record number of Covid-19 deaths last week

Last week, 45 Covid-19 related deaths were registered in Norway, according to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health's (NIPH) latest weekly report. This is the highest number of recorded deaths in 2021. 

"The number of deaths in week 46 is the highest registered in 2021 and at almost the same level as during the beginning of the pandemic," the NIPH wrote in its report. 

The median age of those who died was 85 years old. In total, 146 new patients were admitted to hospitals with the virus. 

New president of the Storting announced 

Masud Gharahkhani will be the new president of Norway's parliament after the Labour Party put him forward for the role. 

Vice president Sverre Myril was due to take over but was ousted. Eva Kristin Hansen, the previous president, stepped down last week due to the commuter housing scandal, which has engulfed Norwegian politics since September. 

Since the end of the summer, it has been revealed that several MPs had taken advantage of commuter housing allowances by having the state pay for their housing, despite already having access to their own private accommodation. 

"There are sad circumstances surrounding this election of a new Storting president. The work of the Storting should be about solving people's everyday challenges, not about clutter or chaos in the representatives' schemes," Gharahkhani told the press in parliament yesterday. 

Gharahkhani will become the first president of the Storting born in a country other than Norway, having moved to Norway from Iran in 1987. 

Cross-border shopping well below pre-pandemic level 

Between July and September this year, Norwegians spent 1.3 billion kroner during cross-border shopping trips, according to Statistics Norway. 

This is well below the record third quarter recorded in 2019 when Norwegians spent five billion kroner on shopping trips abroad. 

READ ALSO: Is the return of cross-border shopping in Norway really a good thing

"Despite the fact that cross-border trade picked up sharply in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter, there is still a long way to go until it is at the same level as before the pandemic," Boyd Oyier, chief consultant at Statistics Norway, said in the report. 

4,575 new Covid-19 cases in Norway

On Wednesday, 4,575 new Covid-19 cases were recorded. That is 2,097 more than the same day last week. 

However, the high number of cases registered on Wednesday was due to delays which meant too few were recorded on Tuesday when 1,520 infections were announced. 

The reason for too few cases being registered was that the Norwegian Health Network had operation problems. 

Over the last seven days, an average of 2,297 Covid infections have been registered each day. 

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Norway. Source: Norwegian Institute of Public Health.