The Ministry of Health and Care has adopted an amendment to the regulations on communicable diseases that are dangerous to the public, which removes covid-19 from this list of diseases. At the same time, the covid-19 regulations are repealed.
– This is a special day. We support recommendations from the Directorate of Health and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health that covid-19 no longer meets the Swedish Infection Control Act’s criteria to be classified as a public-dangerous infectious disease. This is a normalization as laid out in the government’s strategy and emergency plan, says Minister of Health and Care Ingvild Kjerkol.
Repeals the covid-19 regulations
The Norwegian Directorate of Health and FHI determine that classification of covid-19 as an infectious disease dangerous to the public is no longer necessary for infection control.
At the same time, the ministry has decided to repeal the covid-19 regulations (lovdata.no). The regulation was adopted on 27 March 2020 and has been amended approximately 300 times in two years.
The regulations regulated in detail the various infection control measures that were adapted during the pandemic. Most of the provisions in the regulation were repealed during 2022, but there have remained, among other things, special rules for infection control in Svalbard.
Consequences for patients
For patients, the change in regulations means that, in the same way as for other respiratory infections, they must pay a deductible when consulting a doctor for covid-19, and that the right to free self-tests and treatment is lost. Thus, covid-19 is now in the same category as influenza and RS virus.
The drug Paxlovid, which reduces the risk of severe corona disease in people at high risk of becoming seriously ill, will continue to be available free of charge until 1 April 2025.
