Norway Ends Covid Restrictions Including Self-Isolation Requirement Despite Omicron Surge
Norway scrapped almost all remaining COVID-19 restrictions on Saturday morning, doing away with its self-isolation and face mask requirements, ending social distancing, and limiting testing to those with symptoms, despite being in the middle of its Omicron surge, which has not yet begun to fall. The Local has the story.
“The one-metre rule is disappearing. We are taking away the recommendation on social distancing,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre told reporters at a press conference.
“Now we can now socialise like we did before, in nightlife, at cultural events and other social occasions. And on the way to and from work on buses, trains and ferries,” he said.
Norway’s decision to lift restrictions comes four days after Sweden lifted its restrictions on Wednesday, and twelve days after Denmark did on February 1st.
Støre put the change in restrictions to the shift in infections towards the milder Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus.
“We can ease the restrictions because Omicron does not cause as serious disease as previous variants. Even though the infection rate is rising, the proportion who end up in hospital is low. We are well protected with the vaccine,” he said. “We can treat COVID-19 like other diseases.”
Among the changes, which apply from 10am on Saturday morning, are:
• The one-metre rule is abolished
• The requirement to wear face masks is abolished
• Only adults with symptoms are now advised to get tested for COVID-19
• The requirement to self-isolate for four days has been downgraded to a recommendation
• Kindergarten children and school pupils should stay home if ill, but can return after one fever-free day
• All remaining requirements to show a negative test on arrival at the Norwegian border have been scrappedThose who are unable or unwilling to get vaccinated and those in vulnerable groups are still recommended to wear face masks.
Under the new testing requirements, those who test positive using an antigen or lateral flow test at home are asked to register the positive test in their local municipality’s infection tracking system.
Gahr Støre stressed however that “the pandemic is not over”, and advised unvaccinated people and those in risk groups to continue practising social distancing and wear masks where social distancing is not possible.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said the country had yet to see the peak of the Omicron surge, but it was expected soon.
The agency’s director Camilla Stoltenberg told reporters the number of Covid hospitalisations had risen by 40% in the past week.
That the four Scandinavian countries – Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland – have lifted restrictions in the middle of their Omicron wave, essentially admitting that the disease is neither serious enough nor controllable enough to make interventions worthwhile, is a hopeful sign that the ‘the Science’ may be changing. Even more remarkable is that Norway, Finland and Denmark are doing so despite Covid deaths being close to record levels. Why this should be the case even though the population is vaccinated and Omicron is milder should prompt further investigation.
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Outbreak of sanity in Scandinavia.
Might lead to a sanedemic. Stay alert.
Yep, it might even spread as far as Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
New Zealand?! Not with nurse retched in charge….
😂
On a train for 4 hours today, the only passenger I saw without a face mask was me. There was one automatic announcement saying you MUST wear face masks (and I thought Up Yours) and an announcement from the restaurant saying if you were to ‘dine’ there you’d have to show your Vaxx Pass.
First time I’ve seen a ‘double masker’ – but he took both off for a few seconds, and when he did I thought “Now you’ve breathed in and got it, matey!”
100% face masks on the Helsinki Metro, and in the food shop/supermarket we went into.
Just crazy, this campaign to jab super-healthy athletes
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/just-crazy-this-campaign-to-jab-super-healthy-athletes/
Dr Mark Stephen Nesti
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How many of the countries now junking all these sanctions on their people are banging the war drums over Ukraine – a country for whom we have no legitimate responsibility, a country that was destabilised by the Obama Administration who engineered a coup in 2014 that resulted in an ongoing civil war in which we are supporting one ethnic group against another that is backed by Russia and Belorus.
Four facts that aren’t getting much coverage: 1. The US and their little satellite Britain seem to be backing down in Ukraine: both countries are withdrawing troops. 2. In 1939 the Soviet-German non-aggression pact caused Britain to declare war on Germany. If Ukraine were to join NATO, that would be a similar development – or it would be even worse, because NATO is not just a non-aggression pact but a military alliance. Sorry but countries don’t have the “right” to join military alliances with other countries if their action would upset the balance of power or be tantamount to aggression against another country’s security. Ukrainian membership of NATO would rightly be considered an aggressive move against Russia. It would mean the US use of bases in the country and US warplanes flying up to a very long Russian border. Also the Ukrainian government led by pro-Israeli “ex-comedian” Volodymyr Zelensky considers that the territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, and the Crimea, all of which voted in referendums with large majorities to leave the Ukraine, still belong to Ukraine “by right” and should be taken back – a position that is known as “revanchism”. A Russian response in even a minor conflict over… Read more »
I’m surprised the UK made the cut.
On your point 2), the principal reason for Great Britain’s declaration of war in 1939 was the German invasion of Poland, and various treaty obligations with France towards Poland. Of course, it’s rather more complicated, and after the German invasion, the Russians grabbed a slice of Poland, a by-product of the Russo-German pact.
Well spotted my prehistoric chum , The Democrats have their fingerprints everywhere where there is worldly friction ( mind you The Republicans have their moments ) let’s face it American governments are dodgy 😳
Not really surprising. I lived there, and although the cost of living even then was enough to take your breath away, they are a pragmatic and intrinsically decent people. They like the British (mostly), and although I was there quite some time ago, and things have likely changed, they were, in sharp contrast to the French and others, extraordinarily grateful for our efforts on their behalf during the last War. That’s why we still get a Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square, despite the pipsqueak currently wrecking the capital.
So I can just buy a plane ticket, grab my passport and go, that’s it? Like “before”?
Cos if so, I haven’t had a holiday since September 2021, and my family and I need to be surrounded by adults who understand that life involves risk.
The only thing I think about re Norway is that it’s incredibly expensive. My school friend who lives there and designs hydro dams for a living and earns sh*tloads, just gets by.
Yep, grab a flight. No pre tests, no passenger locator forms and Guinness at £15 a pint.
Heaven.
Yep, told my wife last week that Denmark was looking good for a summer holiday.
Denmark is still doing the special treatment for unjuiced. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Do like the rest of the Norwegians on arrival at the airport, buy all the booze at the airport before you leave it 🙂 Having worked in Norway for a number of years, looking forward to going back!
I’ve been inside airports in Norway – the price of alcohol is the same as in their Vinmonopolet state-run shops. Also, there is no ‘Duty Free’ for arrivals.
Yes there is. So much for your knowledge.
You have to show a boarding pass to buy stuff at the airport, and it is only for, obviously, outbound passengers. If Norwegians have already arrived in Norway, why would their government allow them to buy ‘duty free’ at a Norwegian airport?
Not so. You are so uninformed.
Duty free is available for arriving in Norway international passengers non-aiside after Customs.
Normal duty free allowances apply.
Unlike the UK, international travellers from Norway can use and bring back into Norway, BOTH directions duty free.
Bring back? And if non-airside, you’d think Norwegians would just go their nearest airport for booze, rather that the VinMonopolet state-run liquor stores.
They do not state anywhere that unjabbed people can enter freely. So I believe it when it is widely reported. Most country keeps greenpass in place after declaring the removal of ‘all’ restrictions.
Wild camping is the way to go in Norway. Best way to enjoy the country anyway.
…and legal everywhere in the countryside.
check when Mosquito season is first, you have been warned!
Those Stukas can play havoc, too.
Yes but the UK government will treat you as a leper and force all sorts of indignities on you on your return.
On returning to YOUR OWN COUNTRY.
Family and I have managed to avoid all of that so far, and we have no intention of changing that.
Travelled constantly from UK and back again throughout 2020 and 2021. France, Poland, Germany, Czechia.
You just have to think laterally and read a little history 😉
Do tell please
No. We act alone.
How do you get into Britain and be unbothered here without a stab certificate or taking a test before the end of Day 2?
Is “thinking laterally” a reference to entering Wales from Ireland?
Nothing stopping you answering under a different name if you don’t want to answer as @Marcus.
Not long ago since I was berated as a scaredy cat for asking questions about travelling, by someone who, on return to the UK, spent 10 says or more in self-imposed quarantine afraid to venture out in case Test & Trace nabbed them!
Individual dinghies from France?
Not quite at that stage, Mr Dee!
Whoose down ticking what is in fact true !
People who hold up placards saying ‘Refugees Welcome!’ but who always have some excuse about having no room in their own house to accommodate them.
Fair Play !
Yes, it’s funny how when you ask for details, it’s suddenly all ‘secret’. Just how does one avoid all the PCR tests & quarantines?
As for people claiming they use Hack’n’Trace for fake Vaxx Passes for travel… that sounds fake in itself.
It’s really not anything so complicated. Nothing secret. Just use your imagination and have a bit of courage.
Try to think like Kafka.
Just use my imagination when asked at the check-in desk at an airport to show proof of having pre-purchased two PCR tests?
I see… no real need to buy them?
We have also managed to travel extensively whilst this is all going on. You need preplanning and flexibility but its possible.
I presume you are taking a ‘guinness break’ enroute and taking full advantage of the CTA.
what is cta please. i got the guinness
break and how did you avoid masks airplane s and airports
common travel area; ie Ireland.
thank you ,[ american here :] ]
how did you avoid masks- airplane s and airports or maybe went by sea ! i was thinking that but never did, hat s off to you if that’s how you did it !
Yes that’s what I’ve heard !!.. unless you can charter a Dingy !! 😤
Food in Norway from a shop, and petrol, was around 10% more than in the UK in all the times we have visited Norway (15 times?). Strong alcohol, such as whisky/vodka, is double the price compared to the UK.
Well, sort of, hard to compare – we have often been surprised how cheap food can be in the UK, especially loose vegetables – parsnips in Finland are usually individually wrapped in plastic and are around £1/parsnip (not joking).
Try swedes instead.
Looks like the un-juiced still can’t go. Its not over by a long shot.
Not so.
Read the article.
”
The remaining entry requirements for the obligation to register and negative test before arrival are abolished.”
Vaxxed or not.
Thanks. Read it properly this time and you’re right.
Norway here I come!
Have you got a source that confirms your interpretation which I dearly hope is correct?
When this is confirmed one way or the other, hopefully @Will will add a PS to the article, because this info is surely important to many users of this site.
No, unjuiced are welcome.
The Heroes of Telemark are alive and well.
But can I affjord it?
I see what you did there.
But can I travel there and access all shops and hospitality as an unvaccinated visitor? This isn’t clear to me.
Yes you can.
All travel restrictions removed.
No vaxx passes, no masks, no tests to get in. Vaxxed or unvaxxed.
Just an aeroplane and a passport.
Thanks. Thats great if so and I will go if it is. Norway is great.
I had a quick look and it seems like bloody testing nonsense is still required.
Any links to help me?
Thanks again.
Give gov.uk a couple of weeks to catch up.
Why not just use your imagination to imagine they have already?
Dated a Norwegian girl in London aeons ago. She thought Brits knew nothing of her country. I told her I liked Grieg and took her to see the movie ‘Song of Norway’. She was chuffed.
They have lovely fjords.
Face mask required for the UK airport and on the plane.
Whatever.
.
I love the smell of vindication in the mornings 😉
Will,
when you get a news tip and post a story based on said tip, it’s usual to thank your source or “hatttip”
Basic manners.
Does that include restrictions on the unvaccinated though (including travel restrictions)? Too often I see headlines along the lines of “great news, all restrictions are to be lifted!” only to discover that none of it applies to us unvaccinated untermenschen.
Unjuiced are welcome.
Meet you all there! ✈️🇳🇴☃️
I’m not getting the drinks in though.
Drinks? Plural? You made o money?
Huddle round a glass.
Freedom is enough to make me drunk, anyway.
I’m going to rent a drink, WEF style.
Steal, you mean?
I’ll bring the straws.
Make sure they aren’t plastic, we might get arrested.
Please raise a glass to the absent in Australia: still not permitted to leave prison – sorry, home. Unless the government kindly grants us an exemption (in the old convict days, it was called a Ticket of Leave, and it was a bloody sight easier to get).
What if you say you’re not returning?
Nope. Not permitted to leave without specific exemption (you know our exemptions – Djokovic had one for a bit).
What a strange question, Marcus Aurelius knew. You must live in one of those weird unsafe countries.
I’ve just watched a wonderfully heart warming video of thousands of Australians marching on Canberra who have other ideas. Worldwide pushback. Better late than never!
We’ve been marching by the thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands for many months. There are demonstrations every day.
We’ll win eventually!
You’re on the right side, Alter. Of course you already knew that, but sometimes it helps to be reminded.
Hope, strength and tenacity to those who think and judge for themselves.
Fine, but this makes me angry: if you can end it all now, why did you keep it going for so bloody long?!
Are you questioning my authority?!
Not at all! I don’t recognise it.
[click for the clip]
That’s the way to do it!
Indeed. If you don’t engage, they’ve lost.
C – – T
Klaus not you !
Freedom justified now despite a ‘serious’ situation; freedom not justified earlier, despite a less serious situation, then?
Canting hypocrisy – and not unique to the Norwegian politico class.
Double standards? Quintuple!
“These government traitors to freedom are suppressing the rights of the very people they claim to honor…” – Canadian Army Major Stephen Chledowski
Trudeau Panicking: Another Canadian Military Leader Breaks Rank, Government Rattled.
https://rairfoundation.com/trudeau-panicking-another-canadian-military-leader-breaks-rank-government-rattled-video/
This is great. The first country to have really abandoned the lot!
Believe it.
The phlegmatic Norwegians win the day.
It’s taken them a long time, though…
The bear killed his owner by mistake, trying to swat a fly from his face. Or:
A gjoere noen en bjornetjeneste
I’m not at home with my table top computer so can’t quickly look stuff up, but I have a feeling that this isn’t true, that the ‘unjabbed’ have unfettered access to/from and around Norway. As in the from – pre-purchased PCR tests & quarantine on return to Borisland?
Norway is a neighbour of Finland and ‘cases’ are rising here again (so they say).
They have.
Get over it.
I can hear the “REEEEEEEEE!!!!! THEY’RE GOING TO KILL US ALL!!!!” from here.
At this rate, if only Norwegians are left on this planet, I’d be happy. Excluding myself, of course, but then I am a little bit Norwegian by blood 🙂
So all the jabbed are set free to infect at will….
Come, my children; come to Norway… bwahahahahahahahahahaha!
I prefer his role in The Heroes of Telemark
They just can’t stop themselves having a final dig at the unjabned.
This is true. But it probably is, as you say, final.
We all know who will get the last LAUGH.
Try getting into these countries that have cut down on restrictions without a Vaxx Pass or proof of having taken tests and getting a negative result.
How very gracious of their governments to throw a bit of your former freedoms in your face.
Until all restrictions have gone, then the Covid scam continues.
Should we call this stage ‘Covid Lite’?
EF, in Norway the whole thing is finished. We’re travelling there in the next few days, I’ll let you know what I see.
Denmark, almost, but not quite, I grant you.
Sweden, as Denmark.
Also, expecting the covid scam (as it is indeed) to be over globally, well, it’s never going to happen. Just as frisking at airports post 911.
You seem shy on details… but these are important. We need you to explain every stage of a trip.
You say “the whole thing is over” and then you say “it isn’t”.
I know Norway pretty well. Where will you be going?
I see 100% face masks here in Finland, and that says to me “not over by a long chalk”.
I’ll let you know the whole thing.
A Postcard From Norway, here, on DS.
I respect your questioning, I really do!
I gather (i.e. secondary sources) that Finns are by far the most masked of Scandinavia.
Still haven’t told us where you’re going to in Norway. Remember airline & flight details, info we can check.
Perhaps it is an imaginary trip…
Hi EF, for reasons which – I can assure you – have absolutely nothing to do with lockdowns, covid, all that cr*p, we are no longer flying to Norway tomorrow, sadly! So yes, it turned out to be an imaginary trip!
We are, however, flying to Portugal instead. Tomorrow. Warmth and light is the main reason. Will a Postcard from Lisbon do?! I guess probably not, as this debate was very much about Norway…!
Rest assured, we will be travelling to Norway as soon as possible, although probably over land, which is obviously a very different experience than by air, what with airport environments already lending themselves for many decades to authoritarian control!
For the last two years we travel mainly by land and ferries. The last time I flew anywhere was return LBA-KRK in November 2020, so I’ll be interested to see what has changed in British airports since then. Probably nothing!
Yet here in Scotland the SNP desperately wants another variant to justify their authoritarian regime
No testing requirement on entry to Norway for the unvaccinated? (This is implied but not stated explicitly in the Local article.)
According to Norway’s official report there is no need for any registration/testing for entering Norway.It is a complete back to prepandemic days(The only exception Swalbard)
“Those who are unable or unwilling to get vaccinated and those in vulnerable groups are still recommended to wear face masks.”
I think this confirms that it is the underlying push for ‘vaccines’ that lies behind this totally illogical recommendation.
In other international news, Emmanuel Macron refused a Russian SARSCoV2 test because he didn’t want Russia to
carry out sympathetic magic on his sample“get his DNA”. Might the vicious and false rumour about Brigitte Macron be true about her husband then?They just couldn’t do the whole 9 yards, could they?
Please don’t be fooled. Nothings over anywhere until the blatant discrimination against the ‘unvaccinated’ or even in some countries the ‘unboosted’ is over. One can but hope!
No one here is fooled. We have a decade of fun before us.
Pierre Trudeau properly invoked the War Measures Act in 1970. I would dearly love to see his little snot-nosed bed-wetter son try it against the truckers.
In any event, some head of government needs to send his military out with live ammo, slaughtering several score anti-COVID policy protestors. That would be an international trigger. Heads would wind up on pikes.
However, at the risk of triggering ire by citing Tony Blair … the problem with revolutions is that they always turn out badly.
‘One-metre’ rule? Funny, here in Lockdownunder the minimum is 1.5 metres.
They’re not scrapped. just scaled back, still keeping “recommendations”. It will be ramped up again soon enough. Unless they all out ban these things they aren’t scrapped.
Also Scandanavia has a high level of love for vaxx pass, chipped (tracked) things and a disregard for their own survival
Sooo – here is the latest update: Dr Li-Meng Yan Reveals CCP Spreading Hemorrhagic Fever Bioweapon Via Olympics, and She Shares the Cure According to Dr. Yan, the CCP has developed a new bioweapon that is currently being unleashed to the world during the Beijing Olympics. This new disease is a form of viral Hemorrhagic Fever that has a much higher fatality rate than Covid-19. According to Dr. Yan, cases of the disease have been seen throughout China and just this week it popped up in the United Kingdom. According to UPI: Health authorities said they have diagnosed two cases of a viral hemorrhagic fever in Britain, and possibly a third — marking the first time the illness has been seen in the country in over a decade. Officials said the cases of Lassa fever involve members of the same family and are linked to recent travel to western Africa, where the illness is endemic. Two of the cases are conclusive and the third hasn’t been confirmed yet. Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic illness and infection usually occurs through food or household items contaminated with urine or feces from rats who are carrying the virus. Symptoms of Lassa… Read more »
I do hope Reiner and his team are successful with this. Its very much a David v. Goliath
https://rumble.com/vu8pmx-dr.-reiner-fuellmich-opening-statements-grand-jury-covid-vaccine-crime-agai.html
Spot the difference a year on & after 3 rounds of vaccination, mask mandates (scrupulously observed in compliant Scandinavia) & vaxx passes. A largely harmless variant. Higher death rates in Norway & Finland, heading that way in Denmark, & yet people still want more.
Deaths are most likely a mixture of false attribution of covid due to incidental finding and true deaths of covid in the elderly population now experienced in a population with low background immunity of covid infection and many “low hanging fruits” for the virus. But they still go ahead with easing restrictions as they all understand (without saying it) that omicron is unstoppable and as it is not killing many younger and not clogging up ICU, this is an easy sell to the sheep like populations that vaccination has been the trick to now ease everything up without endangering public health.
Any smart politician outside Scandinavia would follow quickly with immediate easing up for two reasons. First use omicron as a live vaccine and secondly, those recently boostered would still have some protection for serious outcome but this will fade very fast.
Another sensible Scandinavian country.