Norway: Compulsory quarantine after the holidays?

Dozens of hotels quarantine operate near its airport Oslo. The same is true near border crossings, for example to neighboring Sweden. As soon as the Norwegians return home from vacation, a rented bus awaits them to take them to the nearest quarantine hotel. It does not matter if you are on holiday in Finland, the Canary Islands or Greece. They will have to stay at the hotel for ten days for precautionary reasons and of course pay the cost of the mandatory quarantine themselves. Fifty euros per night.

Her Minister of Justice Of Norway, Monica Maeland, argues that, although costly, the measure is more effective than it would be a quarantine at home. “Our goal is to reduce, as far as possible, the introduction of cases and especially the mutations of the virus. “In the hotel it is easier to check if the necessary sanitary measures are actually observed”, says the minister.

Some prefer the fine.

Not everyone agrees with the logic of the Norwegian government. Peter Bostrom Hansen has just returned from a vacation with his wife in the Mediterranean, specifically in the Canary Islands. Speaking to TV2, he said that he would rather pay the fine for violating the quarantine, which amounts to 2,000 euros, than be crowded with strangers in a hotel for ten days. “I do not think they will put us in prison, which I would still prefer, if nothing else there they will give us a plate of food. “But I do not go to a hotel, many people gather there and some of them have definitely been infected with the virus,” he says.

Local media talk about an. Imaginative Norwegian, who on his return from vacation put on his skis and tried to cross the border to Sweden secretly to avoid the hotel quarantine. They found him in the snow, on the verge of hypothermia. In the end, he did not escape the quarantine either. Still others have no problem being isolated in a hotel room for ten days. For example, Daniel Steen, who recently visited his girlfriend in Finland and says that the mandatory quarantine “may indeed be a restriction on my freedom, but after all it was my decision to travel abroad…”

Another quarantine, another holiday

After the first seven days at the hotel, those interested can be tested for coronavirus and, if it comes out negative, they can go home, but even there they will have to be quarantined for three days, until the mandatory ten-day period is completed. the law. As for the Norwegian hotel, it is definitely not suitable for continuing the holidays. As Thomas Odegard, manager of a quarantine hotel in Oslo, explains, the bar and gym remain closed and customers have little room to move around the hotel. If nothing else, complete nutrition is provided, but also… from a distance. “Three times a day our partners take the food to the rooms, knock on the door and the customers have to wait at least thirty seconds before they open to get their food,” says Thomas Odegard.

In general, Norway has managed to deal with the pandemic. However, a few weeks ago the cases started to increase, especially in Oslo. That is why Sylvia Astand, a representative of the Norwegian capital for health issues, states that she does not see any alternative in quarantine hotels. After all, he points out, “we can see it as a service to the community. Everyone must take their responsibilities… “

source: Deutsche Welle