Nordic countries talk about opening borders

Prime Minister Erna SolbergPrime Minister Erna Solberg.Photo: Fredrik Hagen / NTB scanpix

Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) will not stop border control and quarantine duty without other countries doing the same.

– “We will do this together with the other Nordic countries and with the EU, perhaps in groups,” says Solberg to NTB.

– “We will wait and do this in a coordinated way, where we talk to each other,” says the prime minister, who on Thursday had talks with her Danish colleague Mette Frederiksen on the matter.

– “We agree to follow each other and look at when it’s a natural time,” says Solberg.

Unbeknownst
The Directorate of Health and the Public Health Institute (FHI) are now preparing new advice on vacations and leisure travel, which will be presented on 15 May and will apply from the 1st of June, the government writes in its new Coronavirus strategy.

But these will not necessarily provide answers about travel out of Norway, and thus it is unclear when the advice on foreign travel will be changed. Those who have to plan for the summer now should plan a Norwegian holiday, emphasizes Solberg.

– “When it comes to traveling abroad, the answer is that we do not know. This is not something Norway decides alone, it is something we must do together with other countries. We are working on the matter, but it is too early to give a date,” she says.

FHI: Consider cancellation
In the strategy, the government makes it clear that the ban on foreign travel for health professionals is lifted with immediate effect.

But foreign travel is still not advised, and people who have been abroad must quarantine upon returning home.

In its recommendation to the government, FHI writes that the quarantine should now be considered mutually lifted with countries that have good control of the infection, such as Denmark.

The Directorate of Health also believes that such a change may soon become relevant.

– But it is a political decision, points out Health Director Bjørn Guldvog to NTB.

Seeking end to quarantine restrictions
At the same time, thousands of Norwegians who have cabins in Sweden have demanded that quarantine be lifted soon.

Swedish local authorities in the Strömstad area also say they will try to influence Norway to open borders, following a 95 percent fall in over the border shopping.

“This is what we stand for. We need to know the complete picture of the and control of the contagion in Sweden that we can live with before we open the borders,” says Solberg.

Sweden has far more cases of Coronavirus infection and around seven times more deaths compared to the population of Norway.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

2 Comments on "Nordic countries talk about opening borders"

  1. One of these Swedish let-it-rip “medical experts,” Johan Giesecke, is telling Norwegians to do the same … maybe in part to cover himself from a criminal charge of mass murder in Sweden.

    WHO says there still is no proof of immunity from re-infection by this, and the U.S. Department of Defense is barring those who have had coronavirus from enlisting! … just to be on the safe side for now, apparently.

    And if we open our borders with Sweden, we shall be inviting in the “Swedish Solution” – read that Final Solution as in the Holocaust.

    Again, facemasking, sanitation, and distancing are to slow/delay the virus until a vaccine can be developed and administered. They are also to lower the “viral load”/virus density, so if a person does get it the amount/dose of virus (at whatever age) gotten, the less probably fatal it will be.

    This is simple logic – Common Sense. It’s not rocket science.

    Giesecke should find an honest day job … like garbage collection … until his arraignment.

  2. Lou Coatney,
    You seem to think that Sweden is business as usual. They did lock down elderly care homes and they still got infected. More people have died in Sweden than Norway, but when Norway opens up, the same thing can happen. Keep dreaming about a vaccine that may or may not ever exist. Even if it does, it may not be very effective and by that time, most people will be exposed already. And in the unlikely event that exposure to Covid doesn’t provide immunity, a vaccine will not work either for the same reason.

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