Concerns About Recent Domestic Infections Of The British Variant Of COVID-19

Three infections of the British variant of COVID-19 have been detected domestically in Iceland which is causing concerns for many officials.

Þórólfur Guðnason, epidemiologist, says this is a cause for concern because it is an infection that has leaked through the border.

This was stated in an interview on Bítin á Bylgjan this morning.

Not from the border but from inside the country

Þórólfur said that about ten people had been diagnosed with the virus domestically over the weekend and about seven of them were quarantined.

In the interview, Þórólfur said, “What one is perhaps more worried about, these are small numbers, and one may be surprised that people have such large operations going on because of such low numbers. What we are perhaps more worried about is that that there are at least three different species of this British variety that we can not trace to the border that have leaked through there somehow without our knowing. It is a matter of concern and we are still diagnosing people outside the quarantine who are appearing.”

Possible that infections could have bypassed the system

Þórólfur is concerned that there may have been ways that infections could have bypassed the system; for example, the fact that children are not screened at the border until recently and it is known that some did not quarantine five days properly upon arrival in the country.

“Many people have been diagnosed in the second screening and people have left the country when the second screening comes without anyone knowing,” he said. “So there are possibilities but it does not need much more than this. It just needs one and one here and there all of a sudden it starts to spread. This is clearly annoying here and there, but the good news is that we are not seeing any blistering increase in this end, many have been quarantined and many have been tried and tested so I hope as the days go by this is only going to decrease.”

Tightened disease control measures that took effect last Thursday are valid for exactly three weeks or until 15 April.

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