Who Contracts COVID-19 Matters More than How Many
Víðir Reynisson, chief superintendent, and Þórólfur Guðnason, chief epidemiologist, on their way to the press conference. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson
Health officials gave a press conference this afternoon, where they revealed that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Iceland has now reached 90. Of those, 35 have been traced to northern Italy, 29 to Austria, four to Switzerland and one to Asia. Fifteen individuals were found to have contracted the disease from people who arrived from the aforementioned areas, and four people contracted the virus from the second group. The origin of two cases is unknown.
A total of 830 samples have been analyzed, and about 700 people are in quarantine. One individual was recently hospitalized – the third to have required hospitalization. Most of the people are experiencing mild symptoms of the disease.
The fact that four of the most recent cases were traced to ski areas in Switzerland is a confirmation of the validity of the decision to expand the high risk area to all ski areas in the Alps, the chief epidemiologist stated.
The goal of health officials is to slow down the spread of the virus in society and, above all, to protect groups that are susceptible to infection.
Doctors, nurses and nursing assistants, who are not employed at the moment, have been asked to register on the website of the Ministry of Health, should their services be needed – either part-time or full time. Later on, other professions in the health sector will be asked to join this group.
No decision has yet been made on when to impose a ban on public gatherings. It is not clear either how large a gathering the ban would extend to. Some nations use gatherings of 500 people or more as a reference point, while others prefer to limit the restriction to groups of 1,000 or more.
What matters most, the chief epidemiologist stressed, is not how many people contract the virus, but who. People susceptible to infections must be protected as well as possible.
