QUARANTINED RESIDENTS/TOURISTS SENT TO MAINLAND ‘WITHIN 24 HOURS’: Norwegian officials making arrangements, contacting those affected, city says (UPDATE: FLIGHT LEAVES SUNDAY NIGHT)

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Update 9 p.m.: The flight for all quarantined visitor leaves Sunday night. Bus picks tourists up from hotels at 10 p.m. Those in residences should go to the Radisson for pickup.

Original story: Visitors and residents in Svalbard affected by a no-travel order due to the coronavirus are expected to be sent to the mainland within 24 hours, with Norwegian government officials making all arrangements and contacting those affected, the city of Longyearbyen announced at midday Sunday.“Transport back to the mainland of Norway and further on to your final destination will be organized by the national authorities and expected to take place within 24 hours,” the announcement states.

“Do not meet at the airport. Transport from your hotel/housing in Longyearbyen to Svalbard Airport will also be organized. As soon as we have an updated information, this will be posted on our website and Facebook page. Also on Sysselmannen.no.”

The ban applies to everyone who arrived in Svalbard since the nationwide 14-day quarantine was in effect Feb. 27. Residents and others on the mainland are banned from traveling to Svalbard is under a quarantine order due to officials wanting to keep the archipelago free of diagnosed cases of the virus and the inability to adequately house the large number of tourists normally arriving during peak spring season.

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.

marksabbatini@yahoo.com

http://icepeople.net