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COVID-19

Norway eases regional restrictions in Oslo area

The Norwegian government is lifting the regional coronavirus measures imposed in the capital Oslo and municipalities in Viken county. But strict local restrictions may apply.

Published: 17 February 2021 10:16 CET

The restrictions are in place until Wednesday, except for Fredrikstad and Hvaler municipalities where they will last through Thursday.

“The municipalities will now themselves consider which measures they want to implement beyond the national recommendations and rules,” said Minister of Health Bent Høie in a statement.

Strict government restrictions were imposed in the municipalities at the end of January when a cluster of the mutated B117 Covid-19 variant, first recorded in the UK, was discovered in the municipality of Nordre Follo, about 30 minutes south of the capital Oslo.

In total, 25 municipalities in the region have been affected by different levels of government restrictions according to the ‘ring’ and ‘letter’ scales.

READ ALSO: The Covid-19 restrictions at each level of Norway’s ‘letter’ scale

READ ALSO: How do recommendations vary across Norway’s Covid-19 ‘letter’ scale?

“The municipalities will during the next couple of days decide on local restrictions,” said Høie. “It is important for the population to monitor the outcomes. The lifting of the regional measures does not automatically entail that restrictions will be eased in the municipality that you live in.”

Regional government restrictions are still in place in the Bergen area in the west of Norway, where different clusters of mutated variants have also been discovered. These measures are scheduled to last to February 22nd.

Norway had on Monday recorded 3,628 cases of mutated Covid-19 variants, according to data from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). Of these, 2,502 cases have been discovered in Oslo and Viken.

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

READ ALSO: 

People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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