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The City Council offers relief in measures for children and young people and opens individual shops and restaurants starting Wednesday. But for the older youth, there will be little change.
Councilor Raymond Johansen and Councilor for Education and Knowledge Inga Marte Thorkildsen report on the status of the crown and what measures will be implemented in Oslo from Wednesday 3 February. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum
Kindergartens, elementary schools and secondary schools go from the red level to the yellow level. It is open for both indoor and outdoor leisure activities for children up to and including the lower secondary level. Individual stores and restaurants may reopen.
These are the main characteristics of the new corona measures that will be applied in the capital from Wednesday. See below for a list of all the new measures in Oslo.
– Children and young people have suffered more than is fair, and now is the time to give children and young people a little more of everyday life, said the councilor for education and knowledge Inga Marte Thorkildsen during the press conference.
Still strictly in high school
But while Oslo follows the government’s recommendations to help the very young, upper secondary students in the capital should expect to be stricter than in surrounding municipalities.
High school goes from fully digital school to red level. This means that students will also be taught at school. Over the next few days, the City Council will also consider whether the upper secondary school should switch to a yellow level in a relatively short time.
– We have to look a little more at the situation among the older youth. There are plans for more relief next week. Then the measures for older youth are first in line, said Council Member Raymond Johansen.
Therefore, Oslo is stricter than the state facilitations on the continuation of the red level in upper secondary schools, and that they are not yet open to leisure activities for those who go to upper secondary school and up to 20 years. According to Johansen, the reason is that youth in this age group move more between districts than younger youth.
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Oslo an epicenter
On Saturday, the government announced that it wants schools and kindergartens in ring 1 and ring 2 municipalities to return to the yellow action level starting on Wednesday, February 3. At the same time, they left it up to the municipalities to assess whether the need for a red level still existed.
The city council leader said that Oslo has always been the epicenter of the infection. He believes that Oslo needs strict measures because the capital throughout the pandemic has been the epicenter of infection in Norway.
Despite declining infection rates in Oslo, the capital is part of the so-called “ring 1” in the step system for measurements in eastern Norway after the mutant outbreak in Nordre Follo.
– Oslo has always been the epicenter of infection, simply because the virus thrives best where there are many people. We must continue to be careful. We will have a gradual and controlled reopening of Oslo. That’s the city hall’s mantra, says Johansen.
– What we have learned is that it is easier to close than to reopen, says the town council leader.
He said the number of infections was declining in Oslo, with 580 cases of infection recorded in Oslo last week. With the exception of Christmas week, this was the lowest since late October. Inga Marte Thorkildsen noted that the infection has decreased in the 13-19 age group since the New Year.
Individual measures for districts
Johansen says that Oslo has always had the opportunity to introduce extraordinary measures for highly infected districts, but that it is difficult.
All of Oslo is affected by strict corona measures, despite the fact that some districts have had low infection pressure over time. The city council leader believes it is difficult to introduce specific measures for individual districts.
– We have always had the opportunity to take extraordinary measures in some of the districts, but at the same time we see that the districts with the greatest contagion pressure are the most vulnerable. Overcrowding doesn’t have much to do with it, says Johansen.
– When you enter, analyze and observe each individual measure, it is not easy to have a single measure for an area. But we have the opportunity to close if there are outbreaks in an area, says Johansen.
The new measures
These are the new measures, which will be applied in Oslo from Wednesday, February 3:
- Stores and restaurants may reopen. According to national regulations, shopping centers will remain closed, except for grocery stores, pharmacies, liquor stores and other businesses for which exemptions have been granted.
- Yellow level in kindergarten, elementary school and high school.
- Over the next few days, Oslo will consider whether the upper secondary school should switch to a yellow level in a relatively short time. High school goes from fully digital school to red level. This means that students will also be taught at school.
- It is open for indoor and outdoor sports and leisure activities for children and youth up to and including upper secondary school, both indoors and outdoors. Cups and matches will remain prohibited.
- Libraries will reopen.
- The best sports can resume organized training.
- It opens for organized youth outdoor activities and growing from high school onward.
- Swimming pools and similar facilities allow for school swimming, organized swimming courses and the organization of swimming training for children and young people up to and including high school age.
