There is at least one person in isolation in almost every postcode in the metropolitan area, with more than half of the isolated population living in Reykjavík, RÚV reports.
Civil protection committees in rural areas regularly publish figures on the numbers in isolation and quarantine in each postcode, but this hasn’t been done in the capital area. RÚV requested these figures from the National Commissioner of Police to see how the infection is spreading throughout the capital area.
At the start of the epidemic, it was not recommended to state exactly in which areas the infection was diagnosed, but in April the Directorate of Health allowed this information to be made public as it was in everyone’s interest to know the situation in any given place at any given time.
Over 500 infections can be traced to just two group infections in the capital area; one at a boxing gym in Kópavogur and one from a Reykjavík nightclub. Of the 1,170 in isolation, 1,016 live in Reykjavík and of the more than three thousand in quarantine, 2,400 are also in Reykjavík.
Currently 211 are isolated in Kópavogur, 125 in Hafnarfjörður, 71 in Garðabær, 54 in Mosfellsbær and 15 in Seltjarnarnes. When the numbers are examined by postal code, 118 are isolated within 105, Hlíðahverfi. 98 people are isolated in 200, Kópavogur. The lowest proportion in relation to population are postcodes 103 and 107.
Tighter rules were put into force in the capital area on October 7th, with the one metre rule being extended to two metres, pubs, clubs, pools, cinemas and gyms closed and people urged to wear masks in shops. At this point, the spread of the epidemic was described as ‘exponential’ with an infection rate of 3. Epidemiologist Þórólfur Guðnason submitted a memorandum to the Minister of Health which proposed that these restrictions be extended by two or three weeks.
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