Status Covid 19 on Svalbard week 1
Week 1 2022, 13 positive samples were registered for Covid 19 in Longyearbyen. Omicron has been detected in four of these.
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Chief infection control doctor Knut Selmer at Longyearbyen sykehus states that they no longer have control over the ways of infection for each of the positive cases. With increased infection on the mainland and visitors to Svalbard, this is to be expected. Now there are also infected among the locals who have not been traveling outside Svalbard. It is not known where they got the infection from. The chief infection control doctor expects an increase in the number of infected people.
People with a positive self-test should contact Longyearbyen sykehus on telephone 79 02 42 00. These will receive information about isolation and individual infection control guidance from the hospital.
There is no capacity to conduct extended infection tracking on Svalbard now. Those with a positive test must themselves inform their close contacts. Close contacts will find updated information about quarantine on the website of the National Institute of Public Health: When you are a close contact - NIPH (fhi.no). The length of the quarantine varies depending on the vaccine status of each individual.
The first known case of Covid infection on Svalbard tested positive on 6 October. A total of 10 people with PCR positive test were registered in Svalbard in 2021.