Easing on ent­ry to Nor­way and Spits­ber­gen for vac­ci­na­ted peo­p­le

Many tour ope­ra­tors have alre­a­dy can­cel­led their arc­tic sum­mer sea­son, but some still main­tain some hope at least for the later part of the sum­mer, and the­re are tho­se who might con­sider pri­va­te tra­vel­ling to 78 degrees north or even a bit fur­ther.

If that will be pos­si­be, what and how, remains to be seen. Coro­na is obvious­ly the fac­tor that is gover­ning all tra­vel-rela­ted acti­vi­ties now and for some time in the future, with all the well-known fac­tors such as pro­gress of vac­ci­na­ti­on pro­gram­mes, new mutants of the virus, infec­tion rates and so on.

The FHI-map: an important data­ba­se

Given the cur­rent posi­ti­ve deve­lo­p­ment lasts, Nor­way seems to be ope­ning up step­wi­se. Inter­na­tio­nal tou­rists are essen­ti­al­ly not allo­wed into the coun­try as of now, with few excep­ti­ons depen­ding on the coun­try or regi­on of ori­gin, which is shown on this map of the Nor­we­gi­an public health insti­tu­te (FHI). “Yel­low” makes tra­vel­ling an opti­on that can be con­side­red also for tou­rists, but that appli­es curr­ent­ly only to parts of Fin­land as well as Ice­land and Green­land.

Coro­na-map of the Nor­we­gi­an public health insti­tu­te (FHI). Latest ver­si­on as of 04 June:
a lot of red.

Vac­ci­na­ti­ons make tra­vel­ling easier, Spits­ber­gen is included

Nevert­hel­ess, the­re is a deve­lo­p­ment that may give inter­na­tio­nal tra­vel­lers reason to hope:

• Accor­ding to a govern­men­tal press release published on Wed­nes­day, ful­ly vac­ci­na­ted or reco­ver­ed peo­p­le may enter Nor­way again wit­hout qua­ran­ti­ne from today (Fri­day, 11 June). That is, howe­ver, only for per­sons who got their vac­ci­na­ti­ons in Nor­way or who have their infec­tion with Covid-19 regis­tered in Nor­way in the last 6 months, but chan­ces are that this may chan­ce when the Euro­pean digi­tal vac­ci­na­ti­on cer­ti­fi­ca­te sys­tem is in ope­ra­ti­on. Nor­way has announ­ced to join this sys­tem, and we can be curious about Nor­we­gi­an decis­i­ons coming then. Test­ing upon ente­ring the coun­try remains com­pul­so­ry.
• Spits­ber­gen is now included in important steps of the easing: as Sval­bard­pos­ten reports, vaccinated/recovered peo­p­le who are not requi­red to stay in qua­ran­ti­ne (as abo­ve) may tra­vel on the Lon­gye­ar­by­en. It was and is not pos­si­ble to qua­ran­ti­ne in Sval­bard, so qua­ran­ti­ne time has to be done on the main­land, a major obs­ta­cle for inter­na­tio­nal tra­vel­lers. A nega­ti­ve Coro­na test in Nor­way within 24 hours befo­re depar­tu­re to Lon­gye­ar­by­en remains com­pul­so­ry.

The ques­ti­on of coas­tal crui­ses in Spits­ber­gen waters remains so far open. The­re is still hope that some crui­ses may be pos­si­ble later in the sea­son, pos­si­bly only for vaccinated/recovered peo­p­le.

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