Norwegian directorate of health statement normalising the validity of offshore health certificates and divers’ health certificates

Information Note 10/20 NORWAY Covid-19 response – extension to the validity of health certificates, offshore rotation extensions, and crew changing requirements has been withdrawn.

Your attention is brought to the following information regarding the validity period of Offshore Health Certificates and Diving Health Certificates issued in Norway.

Background

In order to reduce the risk of the spread of the Coronavirus to the health service and to enable critical activities to continue within the oil and gas sector in Norway, the Norwegian Directorate of Health made changes to the validity periods for offshore workers and extended the validity of health certificates until the 01 June 2020.

Present Policy

This Information Note is to inform everyone that the Norwegian Directorate of Health did not extend the health certificate exemptions described in 10/20 beyond 1 June. Therefore, IMCA D 10/20 has been withdrawn and now any Norwegian expired health certificates post 31 May 2020 must be replaced by a new health certificate as below.

FOR-2010-12-20-1780 (Health Requirements Regulations) Section 15 states normal health certificate validity periods are:

• Offshore Health Certificates are valid for up to two years;
• Divers’ Health Certificates are valid for up to one year.

The Norwegian Directorate of Health Statement is available in Norwegian here.

The English translation is as follows:

‘Corona outbreak: Extension of the validity of health declarations

The Directorate of Health made a decision of 17.03.2020, extending the validity of health declarations. The decision has not been extended.

This means that health declarations that expire after 01.06.2020 will not be extended.

Declarations of health that expired in the period 01.01.2020-01.06.2020 have automatically extended the duration by 6 months. For example, a health declaration that expires 01.04.2020 will have an extended duration until 01.10.2020.’

A number of countries in the world have national regulations, codes and/or standards which apply to medical fitness for diving at work. These must always be complied with.

Originally issued with the following reference(s): IMCA D 20/20