The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs states that pharmacy employees who contract SARS-CoV-2 and get severe complications, are eligible for compensation through the National Insurance Scheme. 

“What´s crucial, is that the infection is contracted through activity in an environment with exceptionally high risk for illness or contagion,” the Ministry writes in a letter to the Norwegian Association of Pharmacists.

Korona regnes som yrkessykdom i apotek

Unclear regulations

From March 1, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs included SARS-CoV-2 on the list of diseases that make employees eligible for compensation. This was done to ensure the economic security of health workers who get serious complications from corona. In the list, pharmacy employees were not specified, and the Norwegian Association of Pharmacists, who also have been working to expand workplace insurance to include corona, demanded a clarification.

Pharmacy workers are eligible 

The reply from the Ministry states that the regulation includes more professions than the ones specified and confirm that SARS-CoV-2 contracted in a pharmacy does make the employee eligible for compensation. 

“The regulation is primarily meant for work in the health service, but through the phrasing: ‘or in execution of other professions where there is activity in an environment with exceptionally high risk for illness or contagion,` other professions are also included.” the Ministry writes and emphasizes that it is the Labour and Welfare Service that ultimately decides if a given work-related disease or injury will get compensated.