NEWS

Norway adds Britain, Greece, Austria and Ireland to quarantine list

Norway adds Britain, Greece, Austria and Ireland to quarantine list

Norway said on Wednesday it will impose a 10-day quarantine on all people arriving from Britain, Austria, Greece and Ireland from Aug. 22 due to rising numbers of Covid-19 cases in those countries.

Similar restrictions will also be imposed on those coming from the Danish capital Copenhagen, the Norwegian foreign ministry said in a statement.

To try to prevent a domestic resurgence of the coronavirus, Norway quarantines all travellers from countries with more than 20 confirmed new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population during the past two weeks.

The Nordic country earlier this month put on hold a plan to remove more coronavirus restrictions and urged its citizens to refrain from foreign travel.

With its latest additions, Norway will be restricting travel from two dozen European countries, including France, Spain, Poland and Switzerland.

It diagnosed 366 people with Covid-19 last week, the second highest level of any single week since April, but well below the record 1,733 cases found in a single week in late March, data from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health showed.

While not a member of the European Union, Norway belongs to the passport-free Schengen travel zone. It had some of the strictest travel restrictions in Europe in the early phase of the pandemic before gradually lifting them from June. 

[Reuters]

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