MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands approves changes to quarantine and visitor policies

Quarantine regulations will come into force on 8 February, and they will apply to people arriving into the Falkland Islands from 15 February 2021 onwards.

The Falkland Islands Government Executive Council, ExCo, has done a review of policies, protocols and legislation referred to Covid-19, and announced decisions on quarantine regulations and visitor policies with a change of category for conservation and environmental specialists.

The changes, according to a Wednesday release from FIG, seek to further tighten requirements in order to protect public health, particularly in light of new strains of coronavirus circulating within the UK.

“As part of its fifth review into the range of policies, protocols and legislation surround Covid-19, ExCo met twice in contingency this week to consider a series of new recommendations.

”Firstly, a new set of quarantine regulations will come into force on 8 February, which means they will apply to people arriving into the Falkland Islands from 15 February 2021 onwards. The mandatory requirement to undertake quarantine for 14 days is still in place, however, the updated legislation will now prohibit people from sharing the same accommodation with anyone else during their quarantine period, unless everyone else in that place of quarantine undertakes quarantine at the same time. Previously people were able to undertake quarantine in shared accommodation, provided they remained separate.

“New guidance will soon be available on the FIG website.

”A change has also been made to the non-essential visitors policy, with conservation and environmental specialists having been removed as a separate category. This change was made to ensure that only specialists with a genuine business need can enter the Islands and to prevent any misunderstanding of the category. The policy is due to remain in place until at least 31 March 2021.

”These changes seek to further tighten requirements in order to protect public health, particularly in light of new strains of coronavirus circulating within the UK.”