This document discusses Norway's use of public communication tools during the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes how Norway communicated information to travelers and the public through multiple channels, including daily press conferences, a public information hotline, social media, and SMS messages. Norway sent SMS messages to the entire Norwegian population with updates, and also sent targeted SMS messages to Norwegian travelers abroad, incoming foreign travelers to Norway, and foreign workers in Norway to provide pandemic-related information and notification of rules in multiple languages. Surveys showed high levels of public trust in Norway's health authorities over the course of the pandemic.

1. Communicating
with the public
during a pandemic
Using public warning messages to inform travellers
Sven Bruun, Senior Adviser
Department of Emergency Medical Services and National Preparedness
Norwegian Directorate of Health

2. The pandemic in Norway
• zz
2
Number of deaths per day in Norway
Number of inpatients with proven covid-19
• Total hospitalized.
• Admitted to the intensive care unit.
• Receives invasive respirator treatment
Number of registered infections per day
# Europe
Deaths/
pr 1M pop
4 Norway 157
5 Finland 191
7 Denmark 458
17 Germany 1.121
24 Sweden 1.457
25 Latvia 1.474
30 France 1.784
31 Spain 1.848
35 UK 2.004
37 Italy 2.171

3. Communicating with the public during a pandemic
• Week 9, 2020
• The first COVID-19 case registered in Norway
• The need for information about the virus increased sharply
• Congestion on information channels at the Norwegian authorities
(Norwegian Directorate of Health, National Institute of Public Health, emergency services
and GPs (doctors on call)
• On 12 March, the country went into lockdown
3
Number of deaths per day in Norway

4. Daily information
• In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire leadership of the
Norwegian Directorate of Health was quarantined
• Medical doctor and lawyer Espen Rostrup Nakstad was brought in
as acting assistant director on 14 March 2020
• He has since been a one-man communication agency,
appearing almost daily in newspapers and on TV, including
live debates and evening news
• Along with the Minister of Health he has been the most prominent
face of the pandemic response
• He has received several awards for his availability, openness and
ability to formulate clear, straightforward answers.
• His visibility and popularity made him a major success factor
in communicating with the public
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5. Several tools were used to communicate with the public during the pandemic
• Press conferences every week on television, newspapers and social media
• The information hotline
• This was operational during the day. Has handled about 400.000 calls
• Chatbot
• Has been running since 13 March. Has handled just over 1.2 million calls.
• Q&A
• Questions and answers centre in cooperation with newspapers, staffed with our people, answering
questions from the population
• Social media
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6. Several tools were used to communicate with the public during the pandemic
• Facebook
• The Facebook crisis module where they display a common message to everyone in a geographical area in a
given time period. Like Google OneBox, we got access to control the content of the Norwegian message and
decided where people should be referred to.
• Spotify
• We got to use the platform's crisis module, which was displayed to all Norwegian users at the beginning of the
pandemic
• Google
• They offered us the use of their OneBox,
that appears at the top of Google search results.
• SMS
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7. Using SMS to communicate with the public
• SMS to the entire population
• We have sent out joint SMS to the entire population in Norway a few times during the
pandemic. On March 12, the first one went out.
• SMS to Norwegians abroad
• We notified all Norwegian mobile phone users (SIM cards) who were in countries where
entry into Norway would be tightened or lead to changes in quarantine.
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8. Using SMS to communicate with the public
• SMS to incoming mobile phone users
• We have sent out SMS to all foreign mobile phone users (SIM cards) that arrive in Norway
• SMS to Russian seasonal workers
• Notifying all Russian SIM cards that crossed the border in Finnmark during the winter
fishing 2020/2021. The SMS contained information about duties and rights (incl. Free
testing and quarantine / isolation in case of symptoms on-board ships)
• SMS to foreign workers in Norway (text in Polish, Lithuanian, etc.)

9. Send SMS to all Norwegian SIM-cards in a specific country

10. Send SMS to all Norwegian SIM-cards in a specific country
10

11. Send SMS to all Norwegian SIM-cards in a specific country
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12. SMS to incoming mobile users
• We have sent out SMS to all
foreign mobile phone users (SIM
cards) that arrive in Norway
throughout the pandemic.
• The content of the SMS has been
adjusted according to changing
rules and conditions.
• Number of messages: 2 000 000
• We have used a specially
designed solution from our
vendor to achieve this.
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Welcome to Norway. You are obliged
by law to:
1. Fill out this registration
form: www.entrynorway.no
2. Present documentation of a
negative covid-19 test.
3. Get tested again for covid-19
on the border.
4. Stay in quarantine for 10 days.
Violation of Covid-rules is fined
by up to NOK 20.000, or more.
See all rules and additional info
at www.helsenorge.no/coronavirus
Examples
Willkommen! Bei Einreise nach
Norwegen gilt eine
Quarantänepflicht von 10 Tagen.
Verstöße werden als Straftat
geahndet. Hier sind die Regeln:
https://www.helsenorge.no/corona-de
Bienvenue ! Souvenez-vous de faire
une quarantaine de 10 jours lorsque
vous entrez en Norvège. La
violation de l’obligation de
quarantaine est un délit. Voici les
règles:
https://www.helsenorge.no/corona-fr

13. Lessons learned
• Reactions
• Some people have complained that they felt monitored after receiving a SMS related to
their whereabouts
• We do not receive any information about the mobile users. We tell the system which type
of mobile subscribers we want to address, create the text-message, and get the number
of recipients in return. We don’t see any mobile number etc.
• Use multiple channels
• We believe the combination of public warning messages and targeted information via
social media is a good way to keep the public informed
• Most important at the beginning of the pandemic
• We believe this had the greatest impact in the first days. The fact that everyone received
an SMS from the authorities (for the first time ever) probably helped to emphasize the
seriousness.
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14. Did it help?
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74%
59%
50%
86% 91%
86%
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80%
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Week
• Surveys show that the population in Norway has had great confidence in the health authorities'
information and handling of the pandemic.
• Unfortunately, we do not have studies that show the effect of the individual information channels.
The population's degree of trust in the health authorities

15. The end
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