On Friday, there were long queues at the border crossings at Svinesund and Gardermoen, as all travelers must be tested for coronavirus and omicron infection upon entry.
–
– It is a good move here now, says leader Jostein Stø at Svinesund International Test Center to NTB at 11.30 on Friday morning.
From midnight, night to Friday, there was again an order that all travelers must take a corona test on the way into Norway. At by far the busiest border crossing on the E6 at Svinesund, there was an immediate increase.
– At the moment there is a good deal of queuing, so we give some offers to test at home within 24 hours, so we can ease the wait a bit. The rules say that you should not have to spend more than an hour and a half on the test area, but it still takes some time, says Stø.
–From almost normal conditions at the border, there were suddenly a large number of vehicles with passengers that must be tested after the tightening on Friday. Several hundred had taken the test during the first hours.
Stø says that there are also a number of buses coming, and then it is fast up to 20-30 people who have to be tested and then wait 15 minutes for the result.
Those who test positive for the corona test must go into isolation. Those who have a home address in Norway can be allowed to travel home to stay isolated there, while those without a place of residence are accommodated in isolation hotels.
– If there is an infection in a bus, we are responsible for transporting the infection to an isolation hotel, says Stø.
–Collections at Gardermoen
At Oslo Airport Gardermoen, in the middle of the day on Friday, queues of passengers were forming and were held back to take coronate tests upon entry.
– There are starting to be queues, so we have started by locking the passengers. This means that in order to avoid the crowding of many passengers in test queues, some travelers will receive a quick test and a message that they must test themselves at home within 24 hours, says municipal director of health and social care Gunnhild Grimstad-Kirkeby in Ullensaker municipality to NTB
–She says this is in line with the new guidelines from the government which say that travelers should be tested at the border as far as possible, but that it is possible for people to test themselves elsewhere within a day.
Grimstad-Kirkeby says that work is being done to increase the test capacity at the airport, and that it will be stepped up in the time ahead.
– Nevertheless, it will probably not be possible to test more than about 4,000 passengers a day. So to the extent that the demand is greater than that, some travelers have to test themselves elsewhere, she says.
–
