The Norwegian government abruptly announced Friday that most of the remaining coronavirus restrictions would be scrapped beginning Saturday and that life in the nation of 5.3 million would return to normal.
People out on the streets to celebrate the end of the COVID-19 restrictions, in Oslo, Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Police in Norway on Sunday reported dozens of disturbances and violent clashes including mass brawls in the Nordic country’s big cities after streets, bars, restaurants and nightclubs were filled with people celebrating the end of COVID-19 restrictions.
“It has been 561 days since we introduced the toughest measures in Norway in peacetime," Solberg said on Friday at a news conference. “Now the time has come to return to a normal daily life.” “That’s exactly what I predicted would happen,” angry nightclub manager Johan Hoeeg Haanes in Oslo told Norwegian newspaper VG. “It was a life-threatening situation in the city because they didn’t give us at least a few days advance notice. This was a dangerous situation, as police said all places were packed.”