Iceland Prime Minister announces new restrictions amid rise in COVID-19 cases

As the COVID-19 cases continue to witness a rise in Iceland, the government has decided to introduce new measures in order to curb the virus. The new restrictions that have been introduced in the country will take effect from midnight on December 22 and will remain effective for three weeks, reported Icelandmonitor.mbl.is. Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir and Minister of Health Willum Þór Þórsson announced the rules that have been introduced to control the spread of the virus. 

According to new COVID restrictions, people need to follow a two-metre social distance instead of one meter. The government has introduced a limit of 20 people on gathering. A maximum of 200 people can attend an event and they must be born in 2015 or earlier. People need to show negative results of the rapid COVID-19 test, taken not more than 48 hours prior, as per the Icelandmonitor.mbl.is. Swimming pools and fitness centres need to have 50% of the number of regular guests.

The Chief Epidemiologist, Þórólfur Guðnason, has suggested that Christmas holidays for schools at all education levels must be extended in order to control the spread of the virus, reported Icelandreview. The Health Minister did not introduce the rule based on the advice of the chief epidemiologist and mentioned that the minister of education would monitor the situation and make a decision based on it, as per the Icelandreview report. According to new COVID rules, the opening hours of shops, bars and restaurants remain unchanged. However, the government has not made any change to the rules related to national borders.  

COVID-19 situation in Iceland 

According to covid.is, 313 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Iceland on 20 December. Eleven COVID-19 patients remain hospitalised and two of them are in intensive care. And 3028 people have been quarantined in Iceland and 2023 are in isolation. The 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants has reached 615.2. The total number of COVID-19 cases reported in Iceland has reached 21,215. The total number of fatalities reported due to COVID-19 is 37 and the number of people who have recovered from coronavirus is 19,155.

Image: Pixabay/Katrín Jakobsdóttir/Facebook