Learning to live with COVID-19 in Norway: Moving from a pandemic to an endemic state

Abstract

Objectives

To analyze the relationship between the stringency of policies that focus on containment, mitigation and elimination and practices to change behavior implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and apparent impacts in the Norwegian population and society. In particular, to consider how the escalation and de-escalation of policy stringency relates to both health and non-health societal factors.

Methods

Observational analysis of publicly available statistics, government documents and media sources.

Results

The stringency of policies relating to social containment, mitigation and elimination and practices to change behaviour were linked to infection rates and pressures on the health system until the endemic phase of COVID-19. In the endemic phase all restrictions were removed despite high levels of infection justified on the basis of the success of the vaccination programme.

Conclusions

In the Norwegian context containment policies were highly effective in limiting both infections and deaths from COVID-19 and more so than reliance on vaccinations alone despite high levels of public participation. In part this is due to the significant trust in the state apparent in Norway that leads to compliance with even highly restrictive policies. Therefore compliance may be more important than the level of stringency in explaining the consequence of public policies on pandemic outcomes.