Member of Parliament Diagnosed With COVID-19

Smári McCarthy of the Pirate Party in Parliament has been diagnosed with COVID-19 over the weekend, according to his Facebook page. He went into self-quarantine over a week ago, when he noticed that he was getting a cough, and on Friday went to get tested.

He says that he is feeling healthy, and that his symptoms are mild. “Other symptoms come and go – but I am, in short, incredibly lucky with what this seems mild,” he says in the post. He also says that he will continue to do parliamentary work as much as he can through teleconferencing and phone calls.

He is not sure where or how he got infected, but he has contacted everyone with whom he has been in contact since he picked up the bug. It is unlikely that other members of Parliament have been infected, since a number of measures have been implemented to keep people at a reasonable distance from one another.

He commended the work of the downtown health clinic, the Center for Disease Control (Almannavarnir), and the doctor who notified him of his results in the post. He also urged everyone to follow the rules to try to reduce transmission as much as possible, and try to get through this. “Stand together and come out stronger,” his post concludes.

We couldn’t agree more, Smári. Get well soon.

As ever, those looking for more information or advice should go to the Icelandic Government’s excellent COVID-19 help page.

Tune into our daily COVID-Cast for a deeper dive into the day’s developments.

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