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“Now I am quite upset with the government.”
Nesodden Mayor Truls Wickholm (Labor Party) writes this on Facebook.
Together with the municipalities of the region, he participated on Thursday in meetings with the Minister of Health and Care Services, Bent Høie (H) and the governor of the county of Oslo and Viken. The message was clear: municipalities in the capital should now introduce the same infection control measures as Oslo.
Bergen municipalities must have received a similar message.
Wickholm reacts strongly to the procedure. He believes that such coordination should be a task for the national authorities, and not a task left to a two-digit number of mayors gathered in Teams.
– If you want it to be the same for everyone, then the government should have assumed that responsibility, says Wickholm to NTB.
Will knock down the infection
Jørgen Vik (Labor Party), Mayor of Lillestrøm, also believes that the government must take responsibility.
– Instead of leaving this up to the county governor and the municipalities themselves, they could have given a clear message about what rules will apply, he tells Romerikes Blad.
The county governor, Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, confirms to NTB that she has encouraged neighboring municipalities to adopt the same measures as in Oslo.
She notes that there is now a great need to reduce infection in the capital region.
– We see that several other European countries have almost had to close. We hope to get rid of that.
New measures Friday
The Oslo City Council is expected to present a new package of austerity measures at a press conference on Friday. But as of Thursday night, discussions were still ongoing about the contents of the package.
Ragnhild Bergheim (Labor Party), Mayor of Lørenskog, points out that Viken is a large region where the infection situation varies.
– We at Lørenskog have no problem accepting that we should be close to Oslo and have strict measures, because we have a very similar infection pressure to that of Oslo. But there are other municipalities that are not in the same situation, says Bergheim.
However, he emphasizes that cooperation is important now.
– Now the infection is increasing so fast that we do not have time to think too much about what to do. We must act. If we don’t do it now, the next step will soon be the complete shutdown again. We want to avoid that.
