Norway drops all Covid restrictions including requirement for kids to be tested

One nation has not let skyrocketing cases stop it from easing restrictions, including a key change for children.

Despite Covid cases in Norway skyrocketing since Christmas, the country is moving ahead with scrapping its final restrictions and will no longer require children to be tested for the virus.

On Saturday Norway removed the requirement for children with respiratory symptoms to get tested for Covid, saying testing was now only necessary for adults.

It also removed the requirement for adults to isolate for four days after a positive Covid test, downgrading it to a recommendation.

Children are advised to stay home from school if they are sick but can return as long as they have been fever-free for 24 hours.

The changes come as daily Covid cases hit 20,000, up from around 3500 on Christmas Day.

Authorities also scrapped requirements that people maintain a distance of one metre away from others, and for masks in crowded spaces despite the surge in Omicron infections.

“Now we can now socialise like we did before, in night-life, at cultural events and other social occasions. And on the way to and from work on buses, trains and ferries,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told reporters at a press conference.

“The metre is disappearing. We are taking away the recommendation on social distancing.”

Norway lifted most of its other Covid curbs earlier this month, including remote working, crowd size limits and restricted alcohol sales in bars and restaurants, AFP reported.

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Covid cases in Norway have skyrocketed since Christmas. Source: Our World in Data

Mr Gahr Store said authorities were able to ease restrictions because Omicron did not cause as serious disease as previous variants.

“Even though the infection rate is rising, the proportion who end up in hospital is low. We are well protected with the vaccine,” he said, according to The Local. “We can treat Covid-19 like other diseases.”

He stressed however “the pandemic is not over”, and advised unvaccinated people and those in risk groups to continue practising social distancing and wear masks where social distancing is not possible.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said the country had yet to see the peak of the Omicron surge, but it was expected soon.

The agency’s director Camilla Stoltenberg told reporters the number of Covid hospitalisations had risen by 40 per cent in the past week.

As of Friday, 986,851 cases and 1440 virus-related deaths had been recorded in Norway, where more than 91 per cent of the population has received at least two doses of the vaccine.

Norway’s move comes four days after Sweden lifted all of its restrictions on February 9, and after Denmark did the same on February 1.

However, experts have pointed to the high uptake of booster shots in those countries as one reason they can open up more safely.

More than 61 per cent of Denmark’s population has received booster shots, 50 per cent of Norwegian and 42 per cent of the Swedish are also triple-jabbed.

In comparison, only around 35 per cent of Australians had received more than two doses of the vaccine on February 9.

People walk along a pedestrian zone in Oslo, Norway on February 2, 2022. Picture: Terje Pedersen/NTB/AFP

In Norway, the FHI estimates that three to four million people from a population of 5.4 million may be infected with Covid by this summer.

Earlier this month, the agency published an updated risk assessment that suggested there were no clear benefits to postponing the spread of the epidemic in Norway with measures, The Local reported.

“Society, in a short time, can return to normal everyday life without special infection control measures against Covid-19 and without a significantly increased disease burden caused by Covid-19,” Ms Stoltenberg said in the report.