Hotel quarantine: – Goes free – releases 20,000 for hotel denial

On Monday, Minister of Health Bent Høie testified about the necessity of strict border measures from Sweden to Norway to stop the corona pandemic.

On Tuesday, health director Bjørn Guldvog and director of the National Institute of Public Health, Camilla Stoltenberg, will stand in the witness box in the Borgarting Court of Appeal.

They will explain why Norwegians with a cabin in Sweden must be in the 10-day hotel quarantine until 1 September when they leave the cabin and return home from the Swedish side.

Both Guldvog and Stoltenberg inform Dagbladet via their communication departments that they will not comment on the case beyond what they explain in court

Norwegian owners of cottages and holiday properties in Sweden – there are over 12,000 of them – won in Oslo District Court this winter with a lawsuit against the state and the authorities about the quarantine provisions from last year for cottage owners on their way home again.

Since then, the requirements have been tightened to mandatory hotel quarantine if you spend the night at a cabin in Sweden or on the Swedish side of the border.

Claim 20,000 – discontinued

– I know of three police reports against Norwegian cottage owners, who have refused to comply with the requirement for hotel quarantine when crossing the border back into Norway according to the latest regulations. All three cases have been dropped by the Eastern police district, says spokesman for the newly started cottage owners’ association Norske Torpare, Einar Rudaa, to Dagbladet after the first day of quarantine in the Court of Appeal.

The judicial authorities were out early with 20,000 kroner as a standard fine for violating the extraordinary quarantine provisions during the pandemic.

The Norwegian-Swedish cottage owners’ association has registered by the police lawyers find no basis in the law to follow political orders.

The eastern police district, which the main airport at Gardermoen sorts under, has been up in about 70 police reports against Norwegian winter tourists in Spain who would not comply with the requirements for hotel quarantine on return.

West: 20,000 in fines

Several of the cases there have been dropped without a fine or other staff reaction. West Police District on the other hand gave recently NOK 20,000 in fines each to a couple who had been to Spain and traveled straight home outside a hotel.

The reason was “not necessary travel”.

Now, before the summer holidays, there is great interest in what the Borgarting Court of Appeal will say about the use of the cabin in Sweden.

– The requirement is to drop the quarantine completely, as we won in the district court. In the alternative, the cottage owners ask to stay at the country house in Sweden for 72 hours – three days – without a quarantine obligation to return home, says Rudaa.

The 67-year-old electrician and business manager from Oslo has had his Swedish croft by Lake Vänarn in Värmland for 20 years.

Day trip of 400 kilometers

It is about 200 kilometers from home and 130-140 kilometers inside Sweden.

– I was last there two weeks ago to arrange maintenance and damage after the winter with craftsmen. Day trip goes without quarantine with covid-19 test on the way into Sweden. Then we must be back on the Norwegian side by midnight 24.00 and possibly go back on a day trip the next day.

– It keeps sleeping in the car right inside on the Norwegian side. But as long as it is only an hour home from the border, it will be twice 200 kilometers for day trips, Rudaa explains.

The Borgarting Court of Appeal has set aside three days for the case between the cottage owners and the state. Three Norwegian landowners testify in addition to Høie, Guldvog and Stoltenberg.

Wednesday is set aside for the final post and procedure.

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