Thursday. 28.03.2024

Every minute counted for the 158 passengers on a flight from Nice to Oslo, as they hoped to land in Norway before a new regulation requiring them to enter coronavirus quarantine took force.

Concerned about increasing case numbers, Norway introduced a new regulation requiring people returning from FranceSwitzerland, the Czech Republic and Monaco to self-isolate for ten days in order to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.

The new regulation entered force at midnight on Friday.

The SAS flight was due to land early on Saturday morning, at 10 minutes past midnight, but passengers applauded when they learned that they were going to land at 00:00 exactly, enabling them to escape the new measure, according to a report in Dagbladet.

The flight, however, landed 1 minute past midnight, according to FlightRadar24, a tracking website.

The passengers must go into quarantine, a spokeswoman for Norway's Health Ministry confirmed in remarks to NRK news outlet, because the new regulation came into force at midnight.

Tourists who rushed back to Norway fail to escape new quarantine rule