Coronavirus in Norway

In a country that is so rural, you would never suspect that the coronavirus is spreading so quickly, but now the panic is predominant here as well. The increase in the last two days has been so extreme that drastic measures have been taken.

For a few weeks now, there have been posters everywhere on how to properly wash your hands and there are hand sanitizer dispensers in the school building. However, there have been no restrictions yet.

Thursday:

Today, however, everything changed: in the morning, there were news reports that all schools would be closing. In the German class, the principal was the teacher and she was asked if the school would be closing. She denied it. Minutes later, the janitor came and needed to speak to her urgently. 15 minutes later, it was clear that the school would be closing on Friday and for the next two weeks, and classes would be conducted online. The first student had a panic attack, which of course became my task to calm her down, as the teachers needed to be there for the other students. They openly admitted to me, 'I'm scared.'

They had to take all their books with them, which they solved creatively and used trash bags for that (after a spectacular thunderstorm on Wednesday evening, it snowed heavily). A meeting just for the teachers was scheduled for Friday morning.

After leaving school, I wanted to do my weekly shopping. The supermarket was busier than usual and the shopping carts were well stocked, and the bread shelf was almost empty. And it was only 4 pm! And the atmosphere in the house was different as well. We discussed our approach in case of an emergency and also rules for the next few weeks. All cultural and sports events, as well as all public buildings, the sports hall, the training studio, actually everything except the supermarket, have been canceled or closed. That means that we are in very close quarters during this time, as none of us will be working and able to pursue our hobbies.

Friday:

The crisis meeting was held with a somber mood. We were informed about the latest developments and the teachers were shown how to conduct online classes. One memorable moment was a teacher who first dusted off his laptop and another teacher who needed to be explained how a mouse works. So it felt as if no one had ever worked with a computer before.

Since the school has students from Denmark and England, that was also discussed. The students from Denmark will return by boat this evening, and the students from England will have to go into a two-week quarantine first.

At the supermarket, it is now normal to stand at the checkout with 6 loaves of bread, but the shelves are still stocked. Before entering a supermarket now, you have to disinfect your hands or wash them with wet wipes. When you meet someone, you should keep at least a meter distance and so on. Also, no one is seen on the streets anymore, so on my way back from school, it felt like walking through a ghost town.

By the way: With all these measures, you might assume that there is a case here, but the next case is in the neighboring municipality and that is over an hour's drive away.

Monday

The number of cases has increased enormously over the weekend and there have been the first deaths. The weekend was strange for me, as it was 3 days long on one hand, but on the other hand, the situation continued to escalate and at 8 a.m. today, the airports will be closed.

In the morning, we had a meeting with our coordinator, who informed us further and also showed us our rights. After that, we painted a few walls in the community center. In the afternoon, I had a meeting with the principal and she said that I should follow the advice of my sending organization. You will see my decision on this matter in the next blog post.