From Iceland — First Day Of Iceland Opening: 1,100 Arrivals, Two With Coronavirus, And More

First Day Of Iceland Opening: 1,100 Arrivals, Two With Coronavirus, And More

Published June 16, 2020

Andie Sophia Fontaine
Photo by
Art Bicnick

As reported, Iceland’s borders opened today for Schengen nationals, and a press conference was held today on how that went.

Þórólfur Guðnason, the chief epidemiologist, told reporters that some 1,100 people arrived in Iceland yesterday; not 900 as previously reported. About 100 children were exempted from screening. Not a single arrival opted to go into 2-week quarantine, and samples were taken from 927 people.

Two people were found to test positive for the coronavirus, both of them arriving from Copenhagen. One of them was a tourist of undisclosed nationality and the other was an Icelander. The tourist in question has the antibodies against the virus, and so does not need to go into isolation.

In all, there are now seven active reported cases of the coronavirus in Iceland, and about 600 are in quarantine.

As more visitors are expected in the days, weeks and months to come, special emphasis was placed on the fact that now is not the time to relax on our precautions. The two-metre rule is still in effect, and people are asked to continue to wash their hands, wear masks at the airport and on their flights over, to download the latest version of the Rakning C-19 tracing app upon arrival and, if so ordered, to respect being quarantined by not going out nor having guests over.

Note: Due to the effect the Coronavirus is having on tourism in Iceland, it’s become increasingly difficult for the Grapevine to survive. If you enjoy our content and want to help the Grapevine’s journalists do things like eat and pay rent, please consider joining our High Five Club.

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