How technology is tackling virus-induced isolation in Norway

Karen Dolva, CEO of No Isolation, demonstrating the Komp, which helps older people beat loneliness during the Covid-19 pandemic by getting pictures, messages and two-way video calls from family members, in Oslo on April 7. — AFP

OSLO: Widower Per Leif Rolid lives alone on his farm, a two-hour drive from Oslo. His sense of isolation has mounted with the Covid-19 pandemic, but a simple screen is helping him stay in touch – without requiring any computer know-how.

Aged 87, Rolid has never owned a computer, smartphone or tablet. But that has not stopped him from getting messages, photos and video calls from his grandchildren scattered around the world.