.
Those vaccinated with two doses may be in close contact with each other. Health and Social Welfare Minister Bent Høie hopes that the second stage of the re-opening will take place in the second half of May - if all goes well.
The press conference was attended by Bent Høie, Justice Minister Monika Mæland, Health Director Bjørn Guldvog and Director of the Department of Public Health Line Vold at 13pm on Wednesday.
The second stage of the opening of Norway was waiting for May.
The minister informs that in the second half of May, if everything goes according to plan.
"The advice and rules in public spaces must continue to be the same for vaccinated and unvaccinated people," says Høie.
"As an increasing proportion of the population is vaccinated, the number of restrictions and resources in society can be relaxed for all," he says.
Nevertheless, some measures are already being relaxed in private homes:
- In private homes and in cars, fully vaccinated people may have close social contact. (Less than 1 meter) with other vaccinated people, even if they are at risk.
- Fully vaccinated people may have close social contact with unvaccinated people who are not at risk.
Høie also explains that it is not desirable to have up to ten guests in Oslo. A council of maximum five guests also applies in Oslo. You may be fined if there are more than ten people in private homes.
He says that more than 1,5 million doses of vaccines have already been distributed in Norway and more than 300 people have been fully vaccinated.
“We need to see what the consequences are before we move on to the next step. If we open too soon, we risk a new closure. Therefore, we must make sure that the number of infected people and the number of hospital admissions do not increase before we move from one step to another. And finally, we need to see that vaccinations are on the right track, he says.
– Mandatory quarantine hotel
`` We don't recommend anyone to travel unless absolutely necessary, '' Monica Mæland points out and continues:
- We are introducing stricter quarantine rules for travelers from India, Iraq, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Quarantine hotels will be required for all travelers from these countries - whether the trip is necessary or not. The tightening is in force from 12:00 on Wednesday.
We must expect more people to come to the hotels and quarantine themselves, and changes could take place in a short time.
- In the media, we have seen many examples of EEA nationals who do not enter Norway after staying in their home country. Only people residing in Norway may travel to Norway. Here we do not distinguish between unnecessary and necessary journeys, says Mæland.
Quarantine Hotels comply with the law and regulations
When asked whether the practices of quarantine hotels might violate human rights, Mæland replies in the negative:
- There is no internment - this is to ensure we do not get infected, and this is allowed in the Infection Control Act, which provides quite a lot of power to take the necessary measures. We believe it is a matter of ensuring that everyone meets quarantine requirements and has been tested. Of course, we believe that what we are doing is fully legal, in line with our principles and human rights.
The health minister says they are working on a coronavirus certificate, which assistant director of health Espen Nakstad also told VG earlier Wednesday that work is underway to implement the document.
Indian mutation
Line Vold claims to know little about the infectivity of the Indian variety compared to the English variety.
- Our knowledge is that it is widespread in India, they have a very tense situation and bottlenecks in the health care system. but little is known about this variant compared to the English strain of the virus, for example about the spread of infection, he says.
On April 8, Prime Minister Erna Solberg presented her plan to re-open Norway. The plan has four steps and it will take at least three weeks to move from one stage to the next. Norway is now in the first stage of preparations.
In the optimistic scenario, the restrictions could start in July, while in the worst-case scenario, re-opening will be difficult to implement in 2021.
