The Minister of Health, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, presented her COVID-19 lifting plan at a government meeting this morning. She announced that there are four milestones that the country will have to reach in order to relax restrictions.
These four stages take into account the proportion of people aged sixteen and older who have received the previous dose of vaccination.
Svandís says that the aim is to lift all disease control measures by the end of June. The goal is for 75% to have received the first dose of vaccination.
The full plan for the lifting of restrictions can be found here.
Hitting the targets
“This plan that I was presenting at a government meeting is really about the fact that we must have a specific guard on target, when we have a certain percentage of the nation that has received the first dose of vaccination,” says Svandís.
She goes on to say: “The first part of the lifting was earlier this month when the meeting restrictions were expanded so that twenty could come together instead of ten and various restrictions were expanded.”
The light at the end of the tunnel
Svandís says that the aim is to be able to resort to further expansions at the beginning of May when 35% of people have received a vaccine. Then the meeting limit could be fifty to one hundred people.
The big milestone in the program is when 75% of 16-year-olds and older have been vaccinated. “Then we should be able to lift these restrictions, which we know all too well and have been within society for almost fourteen months,” says Svandís.
Ministry of Health
However, people must stay vigilant as the epidemic can fluctuate rapidly and plans can change depending on how the country will tackle the virus.
Svandís points out that more people will be vaccinated this week in Iceland than ever before and expects even more vaccinations next week.
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