OSLO: Norway will tighten health measures to combat a surge in COVID-19 cases, including a limit on the number of people at parties, the government said on Tuesday.
From four weeks starting at midnight on Thursday, authorities will limit the number of guests in a home to 10 – in addition to the people in the household.
Last week, a suspected outbreak of the newly discovered omicron variant among dozens of partygoers who had all been vaccinated led the government to introduce new restrictions to deal with COVID-19 in and around the capital Oslo.
“The situation is now so serious that we have to take new measures to keep the pandemic under control,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told a press conference.
However, the number may be raised to 20 over the Christmas period, so long as at least a meter (three feet) is kept between guests, it said.
Masks will also be compulsory – but again, only if social distancing cannot be maintained at one meter, while table-only service will be mandatory at restaurants and bars.
“The risk of overloading health services and the spread of the more contagious omicron variant now requires new strict measures in our country,” Store said.
Norway has recorded 29 omicron cases so far.
Norway tightens measures as COVID-19 cases surge
https://arab.news/4uusw
Norway tightens measures as COVID-19 cases surge
- From four weeks starting at midnight on Thursday, authorities will limit the number of guests in a home to 10
- The number may be raised to 20 over the Christmas period
US intensifies airstrikes in Somalia
- The US has long been involved in the Horn of Africa country and has been targeting Al-Shabab and Daesh militants since the mid-2000s
ABUJA: The US has picked up the pace of its airstrikes against Al-Shabab and Daesh in Somalia this year, according to US Africa Command data.
The US has long been involved in the Horn of Africa country and has been targeting Al-Shabab and Daesh militants since the mid-2000s after the former first emerged.
Since Jan. 1, the US has conducted 23 strikes in Somalia, Africom spokeswoman Major Mahalia Frost said.
The “uptick” since the New Year, Frost said, is related to a broader US push against Daesh-linked militants on the continent, which included Christmas Day strikes in Nigeria.
In the last year, “we’ve gotten a lot more aggressive and (are) working with partners to target, kinetically, the threats, mainly Daesh,” Africom Lt. Gen. John Brennan said last week on the sidelines of a US-Nigeria security meeting in the Nigerian capital.
Following the Nigeria strikes on what Washington and Abuja said were targets linked to Daesh in Sahel province, the Pentagon has pledged increased intelligence sharing with their Nigerian counterparts.
“From Somalia to Nigeria, the problem set is connected.
So we’re trying to take it apart and then provide partners with the information they need,” Brennan said.
“It’s been about more enabling partners and then providing them equipment and capabilities with less restrictions so that they can be more successful.”
Frost added that 23 bombardments in Somalia this year “also includes strikes against Al-Shabab.”
President Donald Trump sharply escalated US strikes in Somalia during his first term, ordering 219 strikes and ground operations over four years — compared to 48 by Barack Obama in eight years.
