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During weeks 1 and 2, 17,480 people from Poland and Lithuania were tested in Norway. At the same time, almost 31,600 more SIM cards were registered from these countries.
January 18 In Norway, mandatory border coronavirus testing for newcomers was introduced. But even before this command appeared, many of those who had left the country at Christmas returned. This is demonstrated by the data provided by Telenor to the Norwegian news portal NRK. During Weeks 1 and 2, all those who came to Norway from the Red States were required to take the Covid-19 test within 24 hours of arrival.
The figures take into account all SIM cards on the Norwegian network, not just Telenor customers. Foreign citizens with Norwegian SIM cards are not registered in the data.
Fear of not getting a job in Norway
NRK decided to analyze the data from Poland and Lithuania, as these are the two countries where most people come to work in Norway. The number of SIM cards in Sweden, which is the third in Norway in terms of the number of incoming employees, was almost unchanged in December and January.
Fear of the employer is one of the reasons many do not take the test, says Caritas, an organization that also helps migrant workers. Since the beginning of the pandemic, it has received 900 requests from Poles.
Coronavirus test
“It’s about testing, infection control and employer accountability. They are afraid to report and follow the rules, for fear of not getting a job in Norway, says Caritas lawyer Marta Frydrych Torkildsen. Also, the language barrier, the Complex rules and constant change are additional problems that stand out.
“We see that there are many people who want to do the right thing, but do not know how to do it. They do not know where the test point is and if it can be used by a foreigner. That’s why we answer those questions every day. We see that public authorities are investing a lot in translating and disseminating all the information updates, but this is difficult to achieve quickly and widely.
Too late
From the landmark on December 28. until January 15. The number of SIM cards in Poland and Lithuania has increased by 46,000, according to figures provided by Telenor to NRK.
“The figures show that more than half of the foreign workers returned home at Christmas, and that is quite normal. We also see that 80 percent. They have come back again, at least from January 15th, ”says Bjørn Amundsen from Telenor.
Associative photo.
Some Norwegian politicians are convinced that the introduction of mandatory tests at the country’s border on January 18 is overdue, which should have started in December.
“Thousands of people returned to Norway after the Christmas holidays and until January 18. It was not controlled and that worries us. We know that almost all cases of infection in some municipalities are imported,” said Ingvild Kjerkol, Party spokesperson Labor.
Cases of infection
Of the 6,769 people diagnosed with coronavirus during the first and second week of the year, 439 came from Poland and 89 from Lithuania. This is the thirteenth case of infection reported in Norway during that period. However, Health Minister Bent Høie also sees positives:
“It was because we started preparing for the large number of people who had to come home after Christmas that we had the opportunity to create a system and a cat duty to test,” he said.
Espen Rostrup Nakstad, Deputy Director of the Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs, believes that Norway now has a good system in place to prevent imported infections:
“First, there is a requirement to have a negative test result that must be done within 24 hours of a trip to Norway. In addition, the ten-day quarantine is now an absolute requirement that is supervised by the national call center and the municipalities. Then everyone will be screened at the border and a PCR test will be performed on everyone from high-risk countries, ”says ER Nakstad.
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