It’s starting to look like a new “lockdown” – VG

Oh dear capital, where there is fall holidays this week and where everyone with a cabin and a resort has quickly left the city and gone to a township where a party is allowed in the hostel while the children take care of themselves. to others.

Only those left in the city cannot be more than ten people together. Or five, if the government decides.

Because the government is not happy. It’s been a week since Oslo introduced strict crown measures. But Health Minister Bent Høie, who has previously said that municipalities know the most, demands more.

On Friday, the Norwegian Health Directorate and the NIPH sent their proposals for even more austerity in Oslo. They believe that discos should close at 10 pm and that only five should be allowed to meet in private. They don’t want events in schools and public events that want up to 50 people. They also want an order for a home office.

While the rest of Norway enjoys confirmation, bonfires and moose hunting, it is starting to look like a new blockade on Oslo.

It seems to have come as a surprise to Høie that Oslo did not present all that it demanded as soon as the letter was sent. Over the weekend, he was on all channels and threatened to use his power to override Oslo City Councilor Raymond Johansen.

But Oslo will not. Johansen and health advisor Robert Steen want to analyze the impact of the measures they have already introduced. A week is quickly a short time.

They also think it’s difficult with a week as special as fall break week, where people travel out of town and it might be a move that leads to a possible decline in numbers.

The crown is a metropolitan disease in particular. People live together and there is a lot of interaction. This is also the case in Norway. Oslo is the center of the spread of the infection.

And Oslo City Councilor Raymond Johansen has many times branded himself as a tougher in this crisis. It has taken the measures out of the hands of the government and has also directly challenged them. It has naturally irritated them.

Even after the summer, it was Strenge-Raymond who threatened the park police to break up all the youth parties.

At the time, this toughness felt like something most people wished for. Many were desperate for the rapid flourishing.

Now, however, the infection rates are much worse. But, at the same time, we see fatigue for measures in Norway and surprisingly low support for measures in other countries.

It is in this situation that Johansen will not allow the government to override it. It is problematic enough to involve people in various initiatives. And we’ll probably have to keep doing this until a vaccine comes along. Maybe another year.

As long as Johansen has no problem with full intensive care units, he doesn’t want this.

That can change. The infection is still more common among young people who are at minimal risk. But with increased infection, the virus can also reach risk groups. And then we take care of increasing admissions, as we see in France and Spain.

The government is monitoring these figures in Madrid, among other places, and you have probably also noticed that many of the capital cities around us are narrowing.

In the UK, the fines are now very high if you escape quarantine. Even our liberal Danish friends are more strict than we are.

While people in Oslo can buy beer at nightclubs until midnight and wear a blindfold on the bus if they feel like it, the bar closes in Copenhagen at 10pm and there is usually a fine if you’re blindfolded. The big discussion in our neighboring country now is whether they should double the fine for young people who go to lawless parties, from 2,500 Danish crowns today.

In Oslo there is no fine for going to a party. Politicians still expect people to wear masks voluntarily.

The frictions between the government of the red-green city of Oslo and the bourgeois government of Erna, we have seen for a long time.

The freezing point was reached when acting health director Espen Rostrup Nakstad came out and warned that Oslo could become Europe’s reddest capital.

I just wanted to ask people to tune in. But the municipal politicians did not like it. Oslo is far from being the reddest city in Europe. The level of infection is high, but much lower than in other large cities, such as Copenhagen. And in Oslo, hardly anyone dies from a crown.

For politicians, it has been difficult to stand out on issues other than the crown in the past eight months.

I think the joy of the crown makes it difficult for most people to keep up. I’m constantly not sure where I can travel and how many I can invite to a party.

In Oslo, it is by far the most confusing. Poor capital. Right now, it feels better to be almost anywhere else than in the belly button of Norway.