These are the Covid rules applying now

Tekst: Karl August Swanstrøm

11. oktober 2021 - Oppdatert 12. november 2021

Are you a student and unsure about if you should stay home or go to Uni if you feel unwell? And how does it work with compulsory attendance and absence? The answer is here.

Norway opened up again 25. September and most of the infection control measures in the country were removed. We now live in a normal everyday with increased preparedness.

This naturally applies to Volda University College as well, and you may have noticed that the meter rule and such is now gone.

Illness, testing and home or not

Even though there is no regulations from authorities to test for COVID-19, the government issues advises on illness, and when you should test yourself and stay at home from work or uni.

In case of respiratory tract symptoms

Everyone who is ill should stay at home and have a low threshold for being tested. This also applies to people who are vaccinated and protected.
Read more about what you should do if you are sick or suspect you are infected with coronavirus: What should you do with newly arisen respiratory tract symptoms?

Testing

The following people are recommended to test themselves:

Anyone with newly-arisen respiratory tract symptoms or other symptoms of COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status
Unvaccinated household members or equivalent close contacts to the infected person
Other unvaccinated close contacts

If you test positive with a rapid antigen test, it is recommended to take a PCR test to confirm the test result.

Isolation in case of infection

It is a requirement that people who have been confirmed infected with COVID-19 must isolate themselves. This also applies to people who are vaccinated and protected.

See: Close contacts and isolation

Contact tracing

If you are infected, or a parent of someone who is infected, you are encouraged to notify other close contacts and encourage testing.
Read more about Close contacts and isolation

When can I return to work, uni, etc.:

Youth and adults should have a negative COVID-19 test before they return.
If the symptoms disappear completely after one day, you can return to work or uni.
If you have lasting symptoms, you should stay at home until your general condition is good, and symptoms are retracting and you have been free of fever in 24 hours, without the use of fever reducing preparations. At most cases you should stay home a couple of days.
In more serious or long lasting symptoms, contact a GP for assessment.

When you've tested negative for COVID-19, symptoms are mild and general condition is not affected, it is not necessary to stay at home. Youth and adults can return to work/uni when they are getting better or the same day the test is taken if indication of testing was mild and vague symptoms. You can return back to uni/work even though you have rest symptoms like a runny nose or a mild cough.

Absence and corona

Due to the corona outbreak there was made a temporary directive in studies and examination for Volda University College.

This goes into things like absence from compulsory activities and attendance – and specifies this §3.3 and 4:

3) If a student – because of COVID-related means - is not allowed to complete and get passed compulsory activities in a course, including compulsory attendance, the student can chose to complete exam in the course. The dean can then order the student to complete activities within a given deadline for the exam result to be valid.

4) A student who is affected by third section in this paragraph must apply for a dispensation from the dean.

Students who are affected by 3) and 4) above should make contact with their subject teacher or course administrator in how an application should be conducted and delivered.

- The directive is valid until 22. June 2022 or when the Board of the University College eventually closes it actively. That means that the window for applying to the deans about dispensations are still fairly wide, and wider than normal. The reasoning of this is to show consideration of the "Long COVID" effects and also the chance of new outbreaks, says Odd Helge Mjellem Tonheim, pro-rector at Volda University College.

Testing and vaccination

Volda council has still good capacity on corona testing.

– We're continuing to test in the same way as before the country reopened. It's confirmed that we will have the test station beside the airport at Hovdebygda until new year. What happens after that is not yet decided, says Municipal GP in Volda, Bent Ingebrigtsen.

For those who are not vaccinated or full vaccinated it's possible to vaccinate in Volda. The next open vaccination days is at Thursday 21. October, Thursday 18. November and Thursday 16. December.