The Norwegian government is concerned about the Delta variant of the coronavirus and has decided to wait before moving on to step 4 of the reopening plan.
A new assessment of whether Norway will move to step 4 will take place in mid-August, the government stated during a press conference on Wednesday.
“The pandemic is not over. There is a worrying development in several European countries as a result of the Delta variant, also in countries with higher vaccination coverage than in Norway, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
“There is uncertainty about how the Delta variant will affect Norway in terms of the spread of infection and disease.
“The government has therefore chosen to follow the advice from the Norwegian Directorate of Health and the FHI and not implement step 4 of the reopening plan at this moment,” Minister of Health and Care Services Bent Høie stated.
Young people under the age of 18 released from infection quarantine
From August 16, children and young people under the age of 18 will mostly be exempted from the obligation to quarantine, the government announced.
However, adolescents must still be quarantined when they are members of the household or close contacts of the infected person, such as boyfriends or girlfriends.
“This increases the risk of infection in society, but it is a risk we are willing to take for children and young people to have as normal an everyday life as possible in the autumn,” Høie explained.
The exception from the infection quarantine only applies if testing is carried out in accordance with guidelines from the municipality.
“National guidelines will be prepared that will specify which test regime the municipalities should have. If the test regime is not followed, the person in question has a duty to quarantine,” the government noted.
For people over the age of 18, the current obligation to go into quarantine is maintained, but the municipalities are allowed to make exceptions and replace the quarantine with testing.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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