Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a news conference yesterday that the country will be removing most of their lockdown measures with immediate effect.
The limit of 10 visitors per home will be lifted, along with restrictions such as no alcohol after 11pm, and working from home will no longer mandatory.
Stoere said that they are well protected by vaccines and even if many more people are infected, there are fewer being hospitalised, which means they can relax many of the measures despite the rising infections.
The move comes in the wake of their neighbours Denmark announcing the same, along with other countries such as Britain, Netherlands and Ireland, who have either removed or eased their restrictions recently.
However, basic social distancing measures such as wearing face masks in crowded places and staying one meter apart will still remain in place.
The Norwegian government said that they will continue to monitor the situation, as the easement is expected to lead to the virus spreading even faster.
And unlike his Danish counterparts, Stoere added that they are not sure if this is the beginning or the end of the pandemic, hinting that future tightening measures are still possible.
Norway had previously partially locked down the country in response to the Omicron variant spread.