At least 119 domestic cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed yesterday. Of those, 80 were not in quarantine—67% of those diagnosed. 27 people are currently at the hospital, which is down from 29 yesterday. Five are in critical care, four of those on ventilators.
3.411 samples were taken in the last 24 hours, which is about the same as the last days before.
The development of this fourth wave has been interesting for a few reasons. Almost the whole nation above the age of 16 is now vaccinated, meaning that much fewer are at the hospital than would be if the vaccination level was not as high as it would be.
According to RÚV, 637 people that have had COVID-19 in this wave were vaccinated with Janssen, meaning that these people have been offered an extra shot to reinforce the antibodies against the virus. 420 got Pfizer and 270 Astra Zeneca. Only 59 of those that got sick had Moderna.
The largest group that got the virus in this fourth wave were young people from 20-39 years old, and most of them got the Janssen vaccine.
Þórólfur Guðnason said on a daily press brief today (12th of August) that there are concerns about Janssen, and that the vaccine is not as effective as the other vaccines.
The government has announced that those that want additional vaccines or have not yet to be vaccinated can get the shot next week, from Monday to Thursday.
The government announced earlier this week that Icelanders will have the same gathering restrictions as the past 2 weeks, or 200 people gathering ban. It seems that the vaccine is working well when it comes to the symptoms from COVID-19, and an overwhelming majority of those that have the virus and are vaccinated don’t get seriously sick from it, meaning that the hospital in Iceland, Landspítalinn, is not overwhelmed by patients.
But it’s also clear that those that are not vaccinated have never been in as much danger of getting the virus as now. The government has now offered children from 12-15 the vaccination and they can get the shot in the third week of August.
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