Norway scraps plan for curfew legislation

OSLO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The Norwegian government isscrapping a plan to introduce legislation permitting the use ofcurfews in the fight against emergencies such as the COVID-19pandemic, Justice Minister Monica Maeland said on Wednesday.

Draft legislation submitted for a round of hearings lastmonth drew fierce opposition to the measure, including from someof the minority centre-right coalition's supporters inparliament.

While Norway has one of Europe's lowest rates of deaths fromthe novel coronavirus, the initial proposal of curfewlegislation was made during a spike of infections at the startof the year.

Infections have since dropped however, as other strictmeasures such as a temporary closure of shopping centres in thecapital region took effect.

"We have not needed this tool so far. That's still thesituation and we hope it will stay that way," Maeland said in astatement.(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)