Icelandic Quarantine Facilities Considered Exemplary

Fosshótel, Þórunnartún, Reykjavík, has been converted into a quarantine hotel.

Fosshótel, Þórunnartún, Reykjavík, has been converted into a quarantine hotel. mbl.is/Árni Sæberg

Vala Hafstað

The operation of quarantine facilities in Iceland has recently caught attention abroad, Morgunblaðið reports. “This is a recognition of what we’re doing,” states Gylfi Þór Þorsteinsson, manager of the quarantine facilities, which are operated by the Red Cross.

Gylfi and his team have received requests from abroad to offer guidance regarding the setup and operation of such facilities. In addition, their work has been covered by foreign media, including the BBC.

Gylfi Þór Þorsteinsson, manager of the quarantine facilities.

Gylfi Þór Þorsteinsson, manager of the quarantine facilities. Photo/Siguður Bogi


“Our friends in the Faroe Islands, for example, received detailed information regarding how to set up quarantine facilities,” he explains. “Subsequently, they set up a quarantine facility almost precisely like the one we have on Rauðarárstígur. Besides, the International Red Cross has requested information from us with the aim of opening similar facilities in other countries.”

Gylfi adds that there are reports of traditional hotels abroad being converted into quarantine hotels by hotel staff. Such endeavors have not always been successful. “Those people, of course, are not specialists in disease prevention, and therefore transmissions have occurred at those hotels, sometimes numerous ones…

“At many such facilities abroad, guests have been allowed to meet, for example by the pool side, and new cases have resulted. We focus first and foremost on disease prevention efforts. This applies at the quarantine facilities and the quarantine hotel. We disinfect many times a day, including all high-touch surfaces after any traffic.”

So far, no employee of the facilities has been infected by the coronavirus at work or needed to quarantine, Gylfi reveals. “That, I believe, is pretty well done,” he states. About 200 employees and volunteers have worked at the facilities.

Yesterday, there were about 200 guests staying at the quarantine hotel Fosshótel on Þórunnartún. At Hótel Lind, on Rauðarárstígur, there were 27 people in isolation and 14 in quarantine. Meanwhile, in Egilsstaðir, East Iceland, there were nearly 10 people staying at a quarantine facility.

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