The COVID-19 pandemic in Svalbard is part of the ongoing
worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by
severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a No ...
(). The virus was confirmed to have reached Svalbard on 6 October 2021.
As a territory of
Norway, Svalbard follows mainland Norway's COVID-19 restrictions.
In March 2021, Svalbard's governor mandated
face masks everywhere, including outdoors.
Violations of the mandate can lead to fines and six months imprisonment.
Background
On 12 January 2020, the
World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a
novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in
Wuhan City
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city and ...
,
Hubei Province,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.
The
case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than
SARS of 2003,
but the
transmission
Transmission may refer to:
Medicine, science and technology
* Power transmission
** Electric power transmission
** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power
*** Automatic transmission
*** Manual transmission
*** ...
has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.
Timeline
On 6 October 2021, a Russian fisherman transported from
Bjørnøya to Longyearbyen hospital tested positive for COVID-19.
On 11 November 2021, an unspecified number of positive cases were announced among visitors and residents of Longyearbyen.
As of 11 January 2022, a total of 23 positive tests have been confirmed, of which 13 were detected in the first week of the year while the remaining 10 were from 2021.
Impact
On tourism
According to the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'', "Tourism numbers are around half of what they used to be."
On science
According to ''
The Independent'', as of March 2020, the pandemic does not pose a risk to the
Svalbard Global Seed Vault "as there are no permanent staff at the Svalbard facility."
In response to the pandemic, the
Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) and the
University of Silesia in Katowice and Centre for Polar Studies "initiated several operational activities suitable to mitigate the new challenges resulting from the pandemic."
References
{{COVID-19 pandemic
Norway
Norway
Disease outbreaks in Norway
2020 in Norway
2021 in Norway
Svalbard
Longyearbyen