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When the new entrance rules were revealed last Friday, Norwegian students who stayed in Denmark and Sweden were desperate. To return home to the family in Norway, they first had to spend ten nights in quarantine hotels and pay 5,000 crowns for it.
As they have to register in the country of study to take the exam, they were not allowed to use an exception to the rule that allowed them to take quarantine at home. But on Wednesday afternoon, the government turned around.
The government writes in a press release that Norwegian students in the Nordic countries will still be able to complete the quarantine period at home.
“The government specifies quarantine rules for students who can quarantine at home. This includes Norwegian students studying in one of the Nordic countries. They do not have to quarantine in quarantine hotels even if they are not registered in the population Norway, ”it says in the press release.
– It means a lot to be able to come home for Christmas this year, says Karoline Elise Flor Thunold (25) from Trondheim. For the past five years, he has studied medicine at the University of Copenhagen.
She is among 2,500 Norwegian students currently studying in a Nordic country. FHI informs TV 2 that it estimates that there are around 20,000 Norwegian students abroad.
– I am very happy that politicians take us seriously. He shows that it is possible to get there, and in just a day and a half, he tells TV 2.
Although the exam is fast approaching, Thunold has spent most of his energy the last few days working on this case.
– It is a great mental strain to be sitting in another country and not knowing if you will return home at Christmas. It is claustrophobic and worrying to have to sit abroad or in quarantined hotels on Christmas Eve, he told TV 2 before the government turned around.
– The students arrived
Education Minister Henrik Asheim (H) then says that quarantine rules shouldn’t be any different.
MISSING: Research and Higher Education Minister Henrik Asheim (H) says quarantine rules should be no different. Photo: Fredrik Hagen
– The quarantine rules will not have a different effect on Norwegian students inside and outside the Nordic countries due to the special rules for the Nordic countries about where you must register. We now emphasize that even Norwegian students from the Nordic countries who want to go home for Christmas can carry out their quarantine at home, not in quarantine hotels, says Asheim.
However, the press release emphasizes that the main rule is that the entry quarantine must be done in a quarantine hotel.
Medical student Thunold is convinced that the government changed after international students in recent days struggled to arrive.
HAPPY: Karoline Elise Flor Thunold is happy that the government has finally turned around. Photo: Private
– I don’t think it would have happened if no one had said anything, she says.
– It means a lot to come home in the days leading up to Christmas. Although it will be quarantined on Christmas Eve, I will still see the family and smell the chops, he continues.
You will now resume reading the missed exam that you missed in the last few days, but first:
– Tonight will be celebrated with red wine and takeout, says a clearly happy student on TV 2.
– It is important to meet the family for Christmas
The last year has been a very special one for most people, and several foreign students have hardly seen the family at home in Norway. Thunold says that a Christmas with the family is very important for the students this year.
– People have not been allowed to be home and visit family since March and therefore it is very important to get to know their family now, he says.
The medical student emphasizes that she has the deepest respect for the crown and infection control, and is aware that students must adhere to quarantine rules at home in Norway.
She herself has been quarantined five times when she was at her home in Trondheim and worked in the hospital emergency room.
But even though the quarantine period can be performed at home for students returning home, FHI’s chief physician, Preven Aavitsland, has a clear message:
– They will be quarantined, and it can be done at the parents’ home, and then the student must be kept away from the other adults in the home.
