Advertisement

Today in Norway For Members

Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday 

Frazer Norwell
Frazer Norwell - [email protected]
Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday 
Bergen Habour. Photo by Darya Tryfanava on Unsplash "

Find out what’s going on in Norway on Thursday with The Local’s short roundup of important news. 

Advertisement

Record Covid-19 numbers in Norway 

On Wednesday, 1,294 new cases of Covid-19 infection were recorded in Norway. This is the highest daily figure registered since the pandemic started. 

The previous record was 1,155 cases of infection registered on March 16th of this year. 

The figures for Wednesday are 570 more than the average of the previous seven days, which is 724. 

In the capital, Oslo, 388 coronavirus cases have been registered. Currently, 56 people in Norway are hospitalised with Covid-19, and 15 patients are receiving intensive care. 

Yesterday, Espen Nakstad, the assistant director of health at the Norwegian Directorate of Health, said that Norway was in the midst of a fourth wave of Covid infections. 

READ MORE: Norway enters fourth Covid-19 wave, warns health chief

Total number of Covid-19 cases in Norway. Source: NIPH

Strom leaves thousands without power

Strong winds and trees falling onto power lines left many in Eastern Norway without electricity throughout Wednesday. 

By Wednesday evening, almost 10,000 people were left without power. 

“There are trees that have fallen on high voltage lines due to strong gusts of wind. In some places, there are dozens of trees lying flat,” Frode Eggestad from energy infrastructure group NØK told public broadcaster NRK

Advertisement

Trees felled by the wind also caused chaos on the roads for motorists. 

“We have had a number of calls about trees that have fallen onto roads due to strong winds this afternoon. Several roads are blocked or partially blocked. We are working hard to clear these blockages up,” Christofa Kei-Nilsen from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration told NRK. 

The winds are expected to continue into Thursday. 

Majority in favour of children over 12 receiving Covid-19 vaccines. 

Norwegian health authorities should offer everyone over 12 a coronavirus vaccine, according to 62 percent of people who responded to a poll by data collection firm Norstat. 

In the survey Norstat carried out for public broadcaster NRK, 13 percent said they didn’t think children should be offered vaccines, and 26 percent said they weren’t sure. 

Preben Aavitsland, chief physician at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), told NRK that the health authority would deliver its recommendation on whether children would be vaccinated in the coming days and that children between 12 and 15 could be vaccinated in October. 

More than half the population in Norway is fully vaccinated 

More than half the population, 51.8 percent of Norway, is now fully jabbed against Covid-19, according to figures from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). 

To date, more than 70 percent of the total population has received one jab. 

Minister of Health and Social Care Bent Høie said the figures were gratifying and thanked the municipalities responsible for organising the vaccine program for their hard work. 

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also