Norway to introduce tighter border controls amid coronavirus surge

Norway’s government announced Friday that it would soon be implementing more measures to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, including tighter border controls and advising people against handshakes as the country sees a fresh surge of cases.

Beginning Nov. 26, both foreign travelers and citizens of Norway have to register online with the government at least three days prior to entering the country, The Associated Press reported. Officials at border checkpoints can ask for a person’s registration.

Forbes noted the measure was being used to help with contact tracing, the practice of determining who an infected individual may have come in contact with.

Norway’s health minister, Ingvild Kjerkol, also announced the country would also start testing people once they arrived. Exceptions would only be made to those who recovered from COVID-19 within the last year or have already received the vaccine, according to Forbes.

Kjerkol also urged people to avoid handshakes, only a few months after then-health minister Bent Hoeie said the gesture was fine to start doing again. Instead, she said people should smile, use their hand on their heart, elbow bump or nod, according to the AP.

The news comes despite the fact that roughly 71 percent of Norway is fully vaccinated, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

The country clocked more than 600 cases on Thursday and more than 2,500 the day prior, per data from the World Health Organization. In comparison, new daily cases numbered in the hundreds last month.

The United States, where only 59 percent are fully vaccinated, has also been seeing an uptrend in cases in recent days. The U.S. saw more than 107,000 cases on Wednesday; comparatively it reported several days of cases above 20,000 in October and November.