Norway returns to tougher measures to slow Omicron wave

[OSLO] Norway's government will stop the sale of alcohol in restaurants and bars, bring back limits on schools and require work from home to ease pressure on the health system as increasing Omicron infections force the nation to return to tough containment measures.

"It is a heavy burden that we are announcing now, for many people and many companies," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told reporters in Oslo. "For many, this will be experienced as a lockdown - if not of society, then of their lives and livelihoods."

Wide-ranging restrictions include requiring face masks at indoor events, closing amusement parks and expanding quarantine rules to all suspected virus variants, the government said late on Monday. Adults are advised to cancel sport and leisure activities, and limit social interaction.

The Nordic country has been among the most successful in weathering the coronavirus impact during the past year. It's recently been hit by a surge in cases of the Delta variant and now also faces an out-of-control spread of Omicron that prompted the Norwegian Institute of Public Health to warn the health system could be overwhelmed if action isn't taken.

As of Monday, the number of people hospitalised and in intensive care had risen to a record high. The 14-day incidence rate is now second in the Nordic region behind Denmark, at 825, according to the World Health Organization. Still, Norway has the second-lowest mortality rate in the region per 100,000 people behind Iceland, at 21.24, measured through the pandemic.

Even if the Omicron variant were to cause less serious illness, the sheer scale of the spread would lead to significantly more admissions than today, with as many as 90,000 to 300,000 cases a day in one scenario, the institute said. The government also called on the military and pharmacists to assist with vaccinations, aiming to administer a third dose to all those over 45 by mid-January.

BLOOMBERG