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ALERT – NORWAY TO CLOSE AIRPORTS, PORTS TO NON-DOMESTIC TRAVEL AT 8 A.M. MONDAY: Prime minister says border seal not total, ‘Norwegians should get home’

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Norway will close all airports and ports to non-domestic travel at 8 a.m. on Monday due to the coronavirus situation, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said in a press conference at 6 p.m. Saturday. Border controls will also be intensified, although efforts are being made to allow Norwegian citizens abroad to return home.

Svalbard is considered domestic travel for the purposes of the order despite being outside the Schengen area since “it is a part of Norway, ” Gov. Kjerstin Askholt said.

A notice at Avinor’s website states “starting Monday, March 16 all flights from abroad are canceled at 08:00. All domestic traffic will go as normal. We monitor the situation on an ongoing basis, and ask all travellers to consult the information provided by their airline.”

As for border restrictions, Solberg said “it is not completely closed, but there will be fewer crossing points and more frequent control.”

Solberg said steps will be taken to allow residents and goods reasonable movement. Planes carrying Norwegian citizens will still be able to land in Norway, and the government is negotiating with Norwegian Air and SAS about bringing nationals home.

“Norwegians abroad will of course be allowed to come home,” Solberg said, adding airlines would also be asked to transport medical equipment from China.

Solberg said the heightened measures match those now happening in some other countries in Europe.

“This is because those who do not have a critical reason in Norway should not be here,” she said. “We do this with the aim of protecting against the infection. We can reject people at the border.”

 

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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