16 November 2020

Revised quarantine measures come into force in the Falkland Islands

From today, Monday 16 November, improved quarantine measures are now in force for people arriving in the Falkland Islands. Anyone entering the Falkland Islands must still stay in quarantine for a period of 14 days after they arrive. This requirement applies regardless of whether the person is returning home to the Falkland Islands, or is visiting for work or pleasure.

However, whereas before people were told that they should stay separate from everyone else sharing their accommodation, under the revised measures people now must stay in isolation from others in the same accommodation, unless everyone is quarantining together. Where people are unable to stay separate from others during their quarantine period, they should seek alternative accommodation and the Falkland Islands Government will facilitate this. Anyone who needs this support should call 27193 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Under the new measures, on arriving at the airport, people must either travel to their government-designated transport (via Penguin Travel) or, if using a private vehicle must either travel alone or only with the people they will be quarantining with. This means that if family or friends wish to collect a passenger from the airport then they will need to go into quarantine with that person.

As a reminder, the requirement to quarantine can be enforced by the police and contravention of the requirement is a criminal offence for which a person can be fined up to £2000, or imprisoned for up to 3 months, or both. The public health need for the requirement to quarantine is reviewed every 6 weeks, to ensure that the requirement is not in place for any longer than reasonably necessary.

The Falkland Islands Government’s dedicated Covid-19 website features all of the latest information on the measures that we are taking, you can visit it online at: https://www.fig.gov.fk/covid-19/

Finally, further to our statements last week confirming two positive surveillance swab testing results, we can confirm that all of the remaining swabs tested over the weekend were negative. This means that from both flights there was only one positive result from each. We will continue to ask people in quarantine to participate in our surveillance swabbing programme, which involves three separate swabs during the 14-day period to make sure that people are free of the infection before they leave quarantine.