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Oslo, Norway PHOTO: Reuters
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The Norwegian capital Oslo will close all junior high schools and will limit visitors to private homes to two until early April as a measure against the spread of the coronavirus, city officials said today, quoted by Reuters.
“There is no doubt that we are now in the third wave,” said Raymond Johansen, the city’s chief executive, adding that the reproductive number of the virus had risen to 1.5 in Oslo. “These measures are being added to all those already in place, and taken together, they will be the most aggressive measures introduced in Oslo since the beginning of the pandemic,” he told a news conference.
Kindergartens and primary schools remain open, but the areas in the capital with the highest levels of infection will switch to virtual training for older children than primary schools. Authorities say most new infections are among children.
In the metropolitan area, which is dominated by the first-found version of the coronavirus in Britain, local authorities have closed non-essential shops and schools, and also restricted restaurants from offering home-cooked food. The first quarantine, imposed in March last year, closed schools and nurseries, as well as many services such as hairdressing salons, but shops and restaurants remained open.
According to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, until yesterday in Norway, almost 448,000 people in the country’s 5.4 million people received the first dose of the vaccine, and more than 256,000 received the second dose.
Norway maintains one of the lowest levels of virus infection in Europe, but is currently experiencing a third wave of the pandemic.
The government said last week that tougher national measures could be imposed if local authorities fail to curb the spread of the infection.
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