Pandemic supplies such as gloves, masks, and at-home tests are under increasing demand around the world, and Iceland is no exception. RÚV reports that at-home tests in particular nearly sold out last week.
At the heart of it is a supply chain issue: many of these products are made in Asia, which are then shipped to storehouses on the European mainland, and it can take anywhere from 60 to 90 days for supplies to be replenished. Normally, scheduling of re-ordering is not a complex process, but if demand rises dramatically in a short period of time, the supply can have a difficult time keeping up. Nonetheless, Icelandic distributors of these products are doing their best to stay on top of the situation.
In other news, Minister of Health Willum Þór Þórsson has revealed, in response to a formal question from Independence Party MP Diljá Mist Einarsdóttir, that 6,578 children in Iceland up to the age of 16 have been infected with the coronavirus between the start of the pandemic and January 2 of this year, including 3,449 children aged 5 to 11. As reported, some 29% of children in this age group have already been vaccinated, and the vaccination drive continues.
Where daily numbers are concerned, there were 1,383 recorded domestic cases of the coronavirus in Iceland yesterday, plus an additional 66 at the border.
777 are in border screening quarantine, with 12,006 in domestic quarantine and 10,162 in isolation. There are currently 39 people in hospital and three in intensive care.
285,125 people aged 12 and older have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus as of January 14th, comprising 91% of this age group. 171,895 have also received booster shots.
Getting a booster shot is a very straightforward process, with no barcode required. More information on that can be found here. For your first and second vaccination, you can sign up here.
As always, be sure to abide the domestic restrictions and border regulations.
More information can be found at covid.is/data and, in Icelandic, below. Bear in mind that it may take some time for daily figures to be updated in languages other than Icelandic.
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