Double Testing at Border Extended Through October 5

Rules regarding coronavirus testing at Icelandic borders that went into effect August 19 will remain unchanged at least through October 5, mbl.is reports, quoting RÚV and visir.com. These rules require everyone who comes to the country to be tested for the coronavirus upon arrival and again four to five days later, with a quarantine in between. Arriving passengers still have the choice of spending 14 days in quarantine instead of being tested.

Minister of Health Svandís Svavarsdóttir has just announced that this decision was made at a government meeting this morning.

Changes will be made to rules regarding people in Iceland who must be quarantined after having been around infected people. Instead of spending 14 days in quarantine, they will have the option of getting a PCR test after seven days. If that test turns out negative, they no longer need to be in quarantine.

The decision to extend double testing at the border is based on the fact that the number of new COVID-19 cases is on the rise in many countries.

No new domestic case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Iceland yesterday. One person who tested positive at the border still awaits antibody results. One person is hospitalized with the disease, 72 are in isolation and 363 in quarantine. The 14-day incidence per 100,000 inhabitants stands at 18.5.