Strict regional measures to be introduced throughout Viken county municipality

Kindergartens, schools, universities, university colleges and vocational schools

• Yellow level measures in line with the traffic light model apply to schools and kindergartens as is the case nationwide. Local assessments should be carried out in line with the infection situation. This means that the municipality acting in its capacity as the local infection prevention authority may decide that red level measures are necessary on the grounds of infection control. Nevertheless, the government will issue national recommendations for a shift to red level measures should the situation indicate this is necessary.
  
  
• Facilities at universities, university colleges and vocational schools are closed to all students and teaching must take place digitally. Personnel should otherwise adhere to the general rules applicable to the workplace.

Events

• All events outside the home are prohibited, both indoors and outdoors, with the exception of funerals and burials.
  
  
• Digital events with a maximum of five persons present, in addition to performers and other necessary production personnel, remain permitted.
  
  

Sport and leisure activities

• The organisation of sporting activities for adults and young people is prohibited (but with a number of exemptions in place listed below). The same stipulation applies to leisure activities such as organised rehearsals, training and auditions for choirs, bands and theatres.
  
  
• Outdoor sporting and leisure activities are permitted for children and young people under the age of 20 provided this takes place in groups of no more than 10 persons and that all participants come from the same municipality. The government recommends that all activities are facilitated in a way that ensures participants are able to maintain distancing of two metres from each other. 
  
  

Workplaces

• Everybody who can do so should work from home. Employers must ensure that personnel work from home insofar as this is practically feasible. Employers must document that instructions on how to do so within the business or organisation have been issued to employees. Employees should only travel to their workplace if it is strictly necessary. The requirement to work from home will apply to everyone who is able to. 
  
  

Retail and services

All shops and department stores must remain closed, with the following exceptions in place:

• Grocery stores, including kiosks, health food shops and other retailers that primarily sell food products.
• Retailers who primarily sell animal feed and other essential items for pets and domestic animals
• Pharmacies
• Surgical stores
• Opticians
• Vinmonopolet
• One-to-one services such as hairdressers, skin care professionals, tattooists, etc.
• Healthcare providers such as physiotherapists, chiropractors, podiatrists, etc.
• Petrol stations
• Retailers for the agricultural and livestock sectors
• Stores and wholesalers in businesses that sell to the trades

Shops and department stores may remain open for click and collect on pre-purchased goods provided that appropriate, Covid-safe measures are in place to enable the safe collection of goods.

Restaurants, cafés, bars, and hotels

• All catering outlets are closed, but take away services are permitted.
  
  
• No alcohol may be served.
  
  
• Catering outlets within hotels may serve food to residents only.
  
  

The following venues and locations must remain closed

• Fitness centres.
  
  
• Swimming pools, water parks, spa facilities, hotel pools, etc.
  
  
• Religious and faith-based premises, with the exception of funeral and burial services, as well as consultations between a representative of the religious of faith-based organisation and single individuals.
  
  
• Amusement parks, bingo halls, amusement arcades, play centres, bowling alleys, etc.
  
  
• Cinemas, theatres, concert venues and equivalent cultural and entertainment facilities.
  
  
• Other public venues and facilities where cultural, entertainment or leisure activities take place that bring together people indoors.
  
  

Recommendations:

• Everyone should avoid visiting other people’s homes or receiving visitors in their own home. Exemptions apply to:
  • Necessary home-based services and visits to people who may die soon.
  • Persons who live alone may receive visits from or pay visits to one or two specific friends or to one specific household.
  • Children and young people may receive visitors from within their own kindergarten or primary school cohort, in addition to visits from one or two specific friends.
    
    
• When meeting other people, you should ensure a distance of 2 metres is maintained. Exceptions to this are people in your own household, as well as people specified in the bullet point above.
  
  
• Everyone should avoid non-essential travel. Employees should only travel to their workplace if it is necessary. Nevertheless, most people are subject to guidelines that stipulate they should work from home.
  
  
• Residents within a municipality subject to measures are urged not to travel to shopping centres or department stores that may be open in neighbouring municipalities.
  
  
• Residents within a municipality subject to measures may travel to a second home or leisure property, but only with people from their own household. Ensure that all purchase are made prior to departure from your own municipality. Do not visit stores, catering outlets or other places where many people may gather in the municipality that you visit. Maintain distancing from other people on the ski trail, the ski lift and when hiking. Check which advice and guidelines apply to the municipality you are visiting and adhere to them. Do not receive visitors.
  
  
• Municipalities and county municipalities should impose enhanced measures on all forms of public transport. This may include measures such as limiting passenger numbers to 50 per cent of capacity on board.
  
  
• Persons who are in high risk categories and face elevated risks of illness or death if they are infected with Covid-19 should ensure they exercise further caution.
  
  
• One-to-one businesses, such as hairdressers, should introduce enhanced measures such as the use of face coverings in situations where it is not possible to maintain distancing of at least 1 metre. Alternatively, they should reduce or temporarily suspend services that involve close face-to-face contact.
  
  
• Testing and contact tracing of close contact and household members:
  • persons who are in quarantine having been instructed to do so by contact tracing should take a test on day 7-10 of their quarantine period.
  • close contacts who are linked to an outbreak of the mutated coronavirus must take a PCR test both when they begin their quarantine period (immediately after being defined as a close contact) and at the end of their quarantine period (no sooner than day 7).
  • members in the same household as close contacts should quarantine until the initial PCR test has been taken and a result received for the close contact. This applies in relation to the outbreak of the English strain of Covid-19.
    
    

Face coverings mandatory

• When distancing of at least one metre is not possible (with the exception of briefly passing by people outside your household), you should use a face covering. This applies in shops, common areas in shopping centre, in catering outlets, in religious and faith-based venues, on public transport and in indoor station areas, as well as in cultural, sporting and leisure activity facilities.
  
  
• Passengers must use face coverings in taxis. The passenger should put on their face covering before entering the taxi and should not remove it until the journey is completed and they have exited the vehicle. The requirement to wear a face covering also applies to the driver at all times when carrying a passenger in their taxi.
  
  
• The requirement to wear a face covering also applies to employees in locations where it is not possible to maintain distancing of at least one metre from visitors. This requirement does not apply to employees in locations where other infection prevention measures have been implemented for the benefit for personnel, such as the use of visors, partitions and so on in accordance with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health’s recommendations.
  
  
• The requirement to wear a face covering does not apply to children under the age of 12, or to those who are unable to wear a face covering on medical or health-related grounds.

All municipalities are entitled to imposed strict guidelines and rules based on the local infection rate. It is therefore important that you monitor which rules apply in your own municipality.