(Free image from Pixabay; no copyright.)

Hei! Hvordan går det? Jeg håper alle fortsatt har det bra – og lærer norsk tross korona. (Hi! How is it going? I hope everybody is still doing fine – and learning Norwegian in spite of COVID-19.)

Dette er den tredje bloggposten om korona. (This is the third blog post about corona.) Temaet er kanskje ikke det mest interessante i verden, men mange lurer sikkert på hvordan koronasituasjonen er i Norge. (It might not be the most interesting topic in the world, but many people probably wonder how the COVID situation is in Norway.)

”Vi er i annen bølge,” (we’re in [the] second wave) the Norwegian helseminister (health minister = Bent Høie) said at the beginning of this month. Like in several other countries, more people in Norway started getting smittet (infected) in the cold autumn weather. Although sykdommen (the disease) is still a very serious threat to many Norwegians, the increase has been less dramatic than elsewhere in Europe, and now at the end of the month smittebølgen er på vei ned (the infection wave is on its way down) in Norway.

Compared to Sverige (Sweden) across the border, the Norwegian tiltak (measures) have been very tøff (tough) – and probably also efficient. Norwegians are generally advised to bli hjemme (stay at home) and ha minst mulig sosial kontakt (have the smallest possible amount of social contact – for a country of nature-lovers that’s not necessarily the worst piece of advice 🙂 ).

Munnbind (face masks – the word is the same in both the singular and the plural) entered the Norwegian COVID battle relatively late, and only in larger cities like Bergen and Oslo they’re compulsory in public places such as restaurants (as far as I’m aware). Another tool is karantene (quarantine). At the moment, Norway is practically sealed off from the outside world. Only people from Greenland, the Faroe Islands and some regions in Finland are allowed to enter Norway without quarantine. Everybody else coming from abroad has to be isolated for 10 dager (ten days) in an expensive karantenehotell. Many people that usually go to Norway for Christmas (including yours truly) have therefore had to reschedule their plans. 🙂

Nå venter vi bare på vaksinen. (Now we’re only waiting for the vaccine.) God julemåned! 🙂 (Happy Christmas month!)