COVID-19 pandemic in Iceland

[3] With a total population of about 370,000 (as of 21 February 2022),[4] the infection rate is about one case per four inhabitants; the infection rate was one of the highest in the world throughout March and April in 2021, though this was attributed to more tests having been carried out per capita in Iceland than any other country, including a screening of the general population run by Icelandic biotech company deCODE genetics to determine the true spread of the virus in the community.

[8] 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, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.

In response to the unfolding outbreak of COVID-19 (known at the time by the provisional name 2019-nCov) in China, on 27 January, the Department of Civil Protection declared an uncertainty phase, used to indicate that there is a suspicion that an event that affects public health is imminent.

[24][25] On 3 March, in an official press report, sanctions were announced for those who would break the quarantine, which includes up to three months in prison, as it is considered an intentional contagion of the virus.

[26] As of 5 March, around 400 people are in home-based quarantine in Iceland and around 330 individuals have been tested for the virus, but no cases of transmission within the community had been identified.

[37] On 15 March, it was reported that three COVID-19 patients in Iceland were now in hospital, one in intensive care, and a health clinic in the capital city area (in Mosfellsbær) has been closed after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.

Chief Epidemiologist Þórólfur Guðnason stated that half of all persons in Iceland who have tested positive for COVID-19 were already self-quarantining (after either returning home from international travel or having been in contact with an infected person), suggesting that measures to control the outbreak through quarantine and isolation in Iceland have been effective so far.

[42] However, this had been later challenged by Dr Þórólfur Guðnason, the chief of the health directorate's national vaccination program in his interview to public broadcaster RUV: "While he [the visitor] was found to be infected with the coronavirus, it is unlikely to have been the cause of his death.

One of the deceased was 67-year-old Sigurður Sverrisson, a renowned Icelandic bridge player; the other was Gunnsteinn Svavar Sigurðsson, a male resident of a nursing home in Bolungarvík in the Westfjords aged 82.

[citation needed] On 8 April 2020, as the cases surged over 1,600 and more recoveries than new infections were recorded for the second day in a row, Iceland's head epidemiologist announced that it was highly likely that the country had reached the peak of its outbreak.

[57] A sharp rise in the number of infections in mid to late September was traced to two restaurants in Reykjavík, Irishman and Brewdog, and ultimately to two French tourists who tested positive in mid-August but did not follow all rules of quarantine.

[3][59] Iceland announced its twelfth and thirteenth deaths on 28 and 29 October; in the previous week, a spike in the number of cases of those aged over 80 had been recorded.

[87] On 21 December 2021, Health Minister Willum Þór Þórsson introduced new infection prevention restrictions, with a gathering limit of 20 persons, in response to growing omicron cases.

[95][96] Throughout the pandemic, The Directorate of Health and The Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management have maintained an official website with the latest information in Icelandic and English.

[97] The response to the pandemic by Icelandic health authorities has focused on early detection and contact tracing and social distancing measures such as a ban on assemblies of more than 20 persons.

[100] However, organisers cancelled or postponed a number of upcoming events, including the annual conference of the School of Humanities of the University of Iceland, Hugvísindaþing, which was set to have taken place on 13 and 14 March 2020.

[101] At a press conference on 13 March 2020, it was announced that public gatherings of more than 100 would be banned and universities and secondaries schools closed for four weeks.

Beginning 17 March, select Nettó and Kjörbúðin locations would reserve the hour from 9 to 10 a.m. for those shoppers at greatest risk of severe complications should they contract COVID-19.

[106] A still stricter ban was announced for the Húnaþing vestra district, where all inhabitants have been ordered to stay at home except to buy necessities.

All swimming pools, museums, libraries and bars closed, as did any businesses requiring a proximity of less than 2 m (hairdressers, tattoo artists, etc.).

[108] On 5 October 2020, closure of bars, gyms, and entertainment venues, as well as a limiting of maximum gathering size from 200 to 20, was ordered, due to a rise in cases.

[110] Icelandic health officials have used voluntary home-based quarantines for all residents returning from defined high-risk areas and virus testing as the primary means of preventing transmission within the community.

Icelandic health officials have tested a proportionately high number of arriving passengers from high-risk areas for COVID-19, with the hope that early detection of infections will prevent their spread.

It was announced on 22 March that an order of 5,000 swabs set to arrive the following week had been reduced at short notice by 3,000.

The ministry stated that "widespread societal resistance to COVID-19 is the main route out of the epidemic," and "to achieve this, as many people as possible need to be infected with the virus as the vaccines are not enough, even though they provide good protection against serious illness".