Oslo makes some relief, but it’s still raining – VG

Councilor Raymond Johansen notes that infection is on the rise again in the capital.

– Even with very strict measures, we find ourselves in a situation where the infection is increasing, he says, pointing out, among other things, the outbreak in Norway’s largest kindergarten.

However, now that the government has repealed the national ring measures that the capital has been covered by, Oslo still chooses to hold back a bit. The new changes to the Oslo rules will last for two weeks before a new evaluation takes place.

These are the changes in Oslo

These are the facilities that are now being carried out in the capital:

• Children and young people up to the age of 19 can return to participate in leisure activities both indoors and outdoors.
• Reading rooms and libraries in universities and colleges open to students.
• Oslo also allows outdoor activities and sports for adults, in groups of a maximum of 10 people and with the requirement that they must be kept at least one meter apart.

Earlier this week, the high schools turned yellow.

However, the city of Oslo will continue to impose restrictions on shopping malls and will stop drinking. This means that there are only a few stores in the mall that can remain open, such as pharmacies and grocery stores. The gym will also be closed.

– Our goal is for the shopping center to open in the coming weeks, says the leader of the city council.

He says there is a lot of pressure and pressure to open gyms in particular. That’s why it’s now possible for them to have small group lessons outdoors for adults, says Johansen.

Expect an increase in infection cases.

The infection trend in Oslo is flat, and has been declining since January 20.

FHI estimates that the R figure in the capital as of January 22 is 0.44.

Arnoldo Frigessi tells VG. He is a professor at UiO and is part of the modeling group at FHI.

– The last estimated reproduction figure, the R figure, for Oslo is 0.44 and the confidence interval rises to one. So it is very low. It’s still stably low, says Frigessi.

In their previous weekly report, published on February 10, the FHI modeling group estimated that the R-number in Oslo since January 18 was 0.94.
The R number shows how many people a person with corona infection continues to infect. If R = 1, each infected person will infect another person on average.

Read more about the R number at Real.

On Tuesday, 98 tested positive for corona in the capital. The municipality as a whole has 134.1 infected per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, shows the special VG crown.

– We hope that the number of infections could increase even more this week because we have asked people to get tested before winter break, said health advisor Robert Steen during the town’s press conference Thursday.

Steen emphasizes, however, that it is gratifying to see so many people follow the call for a test before winter break so they don’t take the infection on vacation.

The districts of Sagene (259.5) and Bjerke (239.4) have had the highest infection rates, while Nordstrand (64.8) and Nordre Aker (62) have had the lowest.

Has been subject to strict measures

On Tuesday, the government announced that the package of measures in 20 municipalities of Oslo and Viken will not be extended from February 18 and therefore the municipalities will decide for themselves. The level of measures in Oslo has been controlled by the government since the outbreak of the British virus variant in Nordre Follo in January, when they decided to introduce “packages of measures” in the form of “Ring 1” and “Ring 2” in municipalities. . who had connections to the outbreak.

Shopping malls, gyms, cultural facilities, and beer taps have been closed, events have been banned, and employers should keep their employees in home offices whenever possible. The level of action has been determined in the covid-19 regulation.

Wondering what measures apply where you live? See here the summary of GBV measures in all municipalities.

Several municipalities are facilitating measures

Around a million people in eastern Norway were affected by the package of measures. The decision to repeal it came after the NIPH and the Norwegian Directorate of Health published a recommendation to do just that.

FHI also recommended that Oslo follow risk level 4 in the municipal medical manual. This level of risk still means closed cultural facilities, closed beer taps, and home ordering. Several municipalities around Oslo, which have also been covered by the increase in national measures, made a decision on Wednesday or will make a decision, which means that the shopping center and beer taps can be opened. This will happen in Moss, Lillestrøm, Asker and Nittedal.