Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s introduction at press conference for children

Hello, everyone.

These past few days have been very strange.

All schools and nursery schools are closed.

All sports and free-time activities have been cancelled.

And anyone who has been abroad has to go into quarantine when they get home.

Because of the coronavirus, the everyday lives of both grown-ups and children are now very different from how they were. Everyone who can should try to stay at home as much as they can.

Many children are finding this scary. I can understand that.

It’s quite OK to be a bit scared when so many big things are happening at once.

It’s quite OK to be a bit scared of being infected by the coronavirus.

But for most of us, the coronavirus is not dangerous. Children who get coronavirus are usually only a bit unwell. It’s a bit like a normal cold. Many people will not get infected at all.

And even if everyone at your school were to be infected with the virus, almost everyone would be fine.

And the same is true of your mum and dad, if they are infected. Grown-ups who are healthy to begin with will not get very ill.

But the coronavirus can be dangerous for people who have a serious illness. It can also be dangerous for old people. So we must do everything we can to prevent these people from being infected.

It is important to remember that everyone who gets ill in Norway receives very good care in hospital. We have excellent nurses and doctors to take care of us.

But the best thing would be for as many people as possible not to get infected at all.  

That is why so many things have been closed or cancelled.

If we don’t meet each other, we can’t infect each other.

I know that many of you have had to cancel your birthday parties. That’s a shame.

It’s boring to have to stay at home so much, and it’s boring not to be able to meet all your friends like you could before.

But by staying at home from school and not taking part in your usual free-time activities, you are helping to make sure that people don’t get infected and don’t get ill.

We have received lots of good questions from you all for this press conference. We will try to answer them now. And I have Guri Melby and Kjell Ingolf Ropstad here to help me. Guri is Minister of Education, and she is in charge of all the schools and nursery schools in Norway.

Kjell Ingolf is Minister of Children and Families, and his job is to make sure that all children and families in the country are OK.

Both of them will say a few words before we start answering your questions. Over to you, Guri.