Norwegian Authorities Officially Propose Red-Listing Iceland

The Norwegian Directorate of Health has propose red-listing Iceland, along with five other European nations, RÚV reports. This means that Icelanders traveling to Norway will have to go into ten-day quarantine upon arrival in the country.

The Norwegian Directorate of Health weighs these decisions primarily on the incidence of infections per 100,000 citizens in the last two weeks. As reported, the Norwegian authorities did not previously plan to red-list Iceland at any point in the near future, as the standard in Norway is 20 cases per 100,000 citizens in the last two weeks in arriving passengers’ countries of origin. But according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the incidence of infection is now 31.1 per 100,000 in Iceland, and is fast approaching levels seen in Sweden.

The other nations set to be red-listed by Norwegian authorities are the Faroe Islands, Poland, Malta, and Cyprus. According to the website of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), it is up to the government to decide whether to follow the Directorate of Health’s instructions. Additionally, residents of six Swedish provinces and two Danish provinces will have to quarantine for ten days upon arrival in Norway as well.

The Norwegian Directorate of Health stated on its website that due to the increased rates of infection in these countries, it was considered necessary to add them to the list of high-risk areas.

Only four days ago the list of high risk areas was updated. Iceland managed to barely pass the standard for a safe area, and a specialist at the Directorate of Health said that Iceland was in a special position. Namely, that Iceland is a country with very few people and so it would not take more than 40 to 60 cases to make the proportion of those infected quite high.

According to the website of Isavia, Iceland’s national airport and air navigation service provider, one flight from Keflavík to Oslo is scheduled on the 12th of August.

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