HAS A PLAN: City Council leader Raymond Johansen (Labor Party) confirms that the city council is working on a reopening plan for Oslo. Photo: Heiko Junge
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City councilor Raymond Johansen will not wait for full vaccination before the reopening of Oslo can begin. In a new plan, the city council is working on mass testing in schools and workplaces to open up the city.
Updated less than 30 minutes ago
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At the same time as Oslo is in a third corona wave where new infection records are constantly being set, the city council is working on a concrete plan for reopening the capital.
This is confirmed by city council leader Raymond Johansen (Labor Party) to VG.
– It is not the case that we have to wait for the whole society to be vaccinated in order for us to be able to start the reopening. If we get the infection level down from the very high level we have today, we will start the reopening of Oslo, Johansen says in an e-mail.
The City Council works on the basis of the following plan: In step with the increasing degree of vaccination, the municipality will put in place mass testing in schools and vulnerable workplaces. These two factors can give the city council the opportunity to reopen parts of the community.
– A kind of intermediate phase
– We will prioritize children and young people first. But if we combine more vaccination and more testing, it will also be possible to open up other parts of society more quickly. One can, for example, imagine that we can go to school and work in exchange for testing ourselves every week, says Johansen.
To VG on Sunday, health councilor Robert Steen (Labor Party) said that the municipality wants to put in place a comprehensive testing of students, teachers, construction workers and health professionals who have not been vaccinated. This can mean testing up to 230,000 a week.
– It will be a kind of intermediate phase until everyone has been vaccinated, where we can live more actively against being tested more often. It becomes especially relevant as older and vulnerable groups are vaccinated, says Johansen.
– There are now several new test methods, but we are dependent on the state making both tests and analysis capacity available, Johansen emphasizes.
—-LOOKING AT DENMARK: Oslo City Councilor Raymond Johansen (Labor Party) and Health City Councilor Robert Steen (Labor Party) find inspiration from the reopening plan presented by the Danish authorities this week. Photo: Heiko Junge
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Looking to Denmark
Johansen informed Oslo City Council about the reopening plan in a statement on Wednesday afternoon. He referred, among other things, to Denmark, where the Folketing recently agreed on a reopening plan.
In Denmark, the authorities have set tentative dates for when students can go to school again – and when different businesses can open. Also in the UK the government has set reopening dates.
It is currently not relevant in Oslo, Johansen emphasizes.
– It is too early to set dates as has been done in Denmark. We must not forget that they have been through a lot of the wave of infection we are now in the middle of here at home, says Johansen.
– With today’s infection situation, we have taken some steps away from the reopening of society that we all want. The sooner we get the coronavirus down, the sooner we can start reopening. That is why the effort each and every one of us puts in is now so significant.
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