Updated 16 May and 17 May

The qua­ran­ti­ne regu­la­ti­ons for Spits­ber­gen are about to be pha­sed out for locals and tou­rists. To start with, the qua­ran­ti­ne will be disestab­lished for locals from today (Fri­day, 15 May) 1800. This will include pri­va­te guests and visi­tors who are coming for pro­fes­sio­nal reasons, inclu­ding sci­en­tists, accor­ding to a press release from the Sys­sel­man­nen. The regu­la­ti­ons in detail as issued by the Sys­sel­man­nen can be found here. Pri­va­te guests are defi­ned as clo­se­ly rela­ted fami­ly mem­bers by Minis­ter of Jus­ti­ce Moni­ca Mæland.

About to be eased: Coro­na qua­ran­ti­ne on Spits­ber­gen: (pho­to com­po­si­ti­on).

Tra­vel­lers coming for work pur­po­ses shall be allo­wed to come to Sval­bard wit­hout qua­ran­ti­ne from 01 June.

“Lei­su­re visi­tors” – tou­rists, in other words – from Scan­di­na­vi­an count­ries (“Nor­den”) can come from 15 June wit­hout having to stay in qua­ran­ti­ne.

It will be con­side­red to open for tou­rists from other neigh­bou­ring Euro­pean count­ries from 20 July, as Minis­ter of Jus­ti­ce* Moni­ca Mæland said during a press con­fe­rence on Fri­day.

(*in an ear­lier ver­si­on of this text, it said “Minis­ter for Eco­no­mic Affairs”. This was not cor­rect. Moni­ca Mæland is, of cour­se, Minis­ter of Jus­ti­ce and emer­gen­cy ser­vices).

Hygie­ne and health safe­ty plans which are accept­ed by aut­ho­ri­ties will be requi­red for any orga­ni­zed tra­vel­ling.

The Sys­sel­man­nen empha­si­zes that it will not be a quick and full return back to what it used to be, but a step-wise approach to a new kind of nor­ma­li­ty. Limi­ting the total num­ber of tou­rists in Spits­ber­gen is in con­side­ra­ti­on, and it is said that it will still take “some time” befo­re crui­ses over seve­ral days can take place again.

Gene­ral­ly, the Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment does not recom­mend inter­na­tio­nal holi­days until at least midd­le of August.