In this file photo taken on April 29, 2019 a custom made Tesla Motors car operated by a funeral services company in Norway is pictured in Oslo. While the novel coronavirus pandemic is ravaging the world, some of Norway's funerals homes ironically have found themselves without work and have turned to the state for aid.
“When the measures against the coronavirus were imposed, it turned out that it not only broke the back of the coronavirus but other viruses too,“ Erik Lande, now head of the family business in the south of the country, told AFP. To cover fixed costs such as rent and insurance, Landes Begravelsesbyra , has received almost 32,000 Norwegian kroner of economic aid.
Since then nearly all of the measures have been lifted and the virus has been mostly contained, in stark contrast to neighbouring Sweden which is still seeing community spread.Of the some 573,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 worldwide, only 253 have been recorded in Norway and this week the country said it had no COVID-19 patients on ventilators and only a handful in hospital.
In the capital Oslo, Verd Begravelsesbyra received almost 37,000 kroner in government support as its business model was disrupted. In part this has been by choice to limit the spread of the disease, but also because of the limits on the number of participants imposed by authorities and some chapels being too small for social distancing.