31.12.21 17:49
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The catering industry in Bergen fears for the future. The city council leader asks the government to redo the controversial corona measure.
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During the last week of the year, four restaurants have gone bankrupt. BA has spoken to several players in the city, and everyone believes that stopping the serving of liquor means a highly uncertain future for the industry.
City councilor Roger Valhammer (Labor Party) is now asking the government to turn around, when the corona measures will be reconsidered in January.
– Our most important message to the government now is to remove the bar stop again when they make a new assessment in the new year, Valhammer writes in a message to BA on New Year’s Eve.
Valhammer points out that the city council has never introduced a full liquor ban in Bergen.
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– There has never been a full bar stop locally in Bergen during almost two years of pandemic. This is because the consequences are so great for people, businesses and workplaces and because our local infection control expertise has meant that it has been an uncertain and inaccurate infection control measure, he writes.
– Especially when we know that the parties and social gatherings are often moved to private homes without a professional actor who facilitates good infection control.
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Disagree with the Minister of Health
Valhammer thus disagrees with party colleague and Minister of Health, Ingvild Kjerkol (Labor Party), about the measure. Kjerkol told BA on Thursday that she understands that the industry finds the liquor ban tough, but that the measures are necessary.
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– I understand well that the measures we have introduced were tough to be informed about for an industry that has had a difficult time for a long time. The bar stop is an intrusive measure. We believe it is necessary because people take less care of themselves and others the more alcohol they drink, said Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol (Labor) to BA.
– In the serious situation we are in, where we have and have had high infection rates and many inpatients, it is necessary with measures to reduce and the contact between people, she continued.
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Want a corona passport
On New Year’s Eve, the party’s group leader in Stavanger, Dag Mossige, went out Stavanger Aftenblad and believed that it is high time that corona passports are introduced. Not just for the catering industry.
– The current situation is of course difficult for both the nightlife and cultural life and all the workplaces that are there. But we should also not underestimate the importance these social arenas have for the mental health of most people, Mossige tells the newspaper.
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He believes it is now time to be able to differentiate between vaccinated and non-vaccinated.
– Those who choose not to be vaccinated, put not only themselves at risk, but also others. That’s why we’re shut down now. Corona passports will allow for differential treatment. We believe the time has come for that now.
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– Up to the government
Roger Valhammer says it is up to the government to introduce a corona passport.
– Neither the city council nor the Labor Party has taken a position on it in Bergen, because it is only possible for us to introduce if we have local measures. Now we only have national measures, and then it is up to the government to consider the corona passport as a full or partial replacement, he says to BA.
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Minister of Health Kjerkol says that the government is now looking at the possibility of using a corona certificate more preventively, without strict infection control measures having to be introduced, which will be relaxed.
– But for the time being, the National Institute of Public Health has recommended waiting for the use of a corona certificate, says Kjerkol.
The main reason for the introduction of bar drinking all over the country was the omicron variant of the coronavirus. FHI feared that the virus would run wild.
– We had to be on the safe side when the danger was great for the virus to run wild and put the health service out of control, says director Frode Forland at the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH), to Bergens Tidende.
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