COVID Roundup: Child Vaccinations Beginning, Latest Numbers, New COVID Death

At a press conference held just moment ago, chief epidemiologist Þórólfur Guðnason revealed that some 40% of hospital admissions, which have been on the rise, have been on account of the Omicron variant, while everyone in intensive care has been diagnosed with the Delta variant, nearly all of them unvaccinated.

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Þórólfur said that the vaccination of children aged five to 11 has begun, and will be in full swing next week. He added that he is confident that in the coming weeks or months, cases will begin to decline.

Kamilla Sigríður Jósefsdóttir, chief of medicine for the chief epidemiologist, said that some 250 children in this age group have already been vaccinated, and messages will start to be sent to parents and guardians at the end of this week. If a child has two parents or guardians, both will receive this message. Parents and guardians will need to then confirm whether their children will be vaccinated, will wait on the vaccination (e.g. if the child already has the coronavirus) or if they will not vaccinate their child. If there is any disagreement between the parents or guardians on this decision, the children in question will not be vaccinated.

These vaccinations will be conducted by area health clinics, both at their offices and other locations, most likely in primary schools.

In other news, there were 1,107 recorded domestic cases of the coronavirus in Iceland yesterday, plus an additional 161 at the border. Of yesterday’s domestic cases, 615 were outside quarantine at diagnosis.

584 are in border screening quarantine, with 7,525 in domestic quarantine and 9,125 in isolation. According to the latest data from Landspítali hospital, there are currently 30 people in hospital and eight in intensive care. Of those in intensive care, six are unvaccinated.

Sadly, a man in his sixties passed away at Landspítali yesterday due to complications arising from the coronavirus. This marks the 39th death in Iceland to the virus.

Meanwhile, on January 2nd, the 14-day incidence per 100,000 people for fully vaccinated adults who have had a booster shot was 1,533.6 (1.5%); for fully vaccinated children (i.e. those born in 2006 or sooner), 2,311.2 (2.3%); for fully vaccinated adults without a booster shot, 4,412.5 (4.4%); for unvaccinated adults, 2,161.6 (2.2%), and for unvaccinated children, 2,910.1 (2.9%). Bear in mind that this data is derived from people who have sought sample testing.

284,101 people aged 12 and older have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus as of January 5th, comprising 91% of this age group. 160,357 have also received booster shots.

Getting a booster shot is a very straightforward process, with no barcode required. More information on that can be found here. For your first and second vaccination, you can sign up here.

As always, be sure to abide the domestic restrictions and border regulations.

More statistics and information can be found at covid.is or below.