Iceland to be put on red list Thursday

From a mass vaccination event earlier this year. Despite having …

From a mass vaccination event earlier this year. Despite having vaccinated most of the adult population Iceland has seen a recent spike in cases. mbl.is/Kristinn Magnússon

[This story was updated on August 5th when a reference to the UK travel rules was removed as the UK does not use the ECDC system to classify countries based on Covid-19 status]

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is expected to put Iceland on the so-called red list due to the current surge in Covid-19 cases, as the case notification rate recently exceeded 200 per 100.000 inhabitants.

The ECDC updates its report of the global epidemiological situation on a weekly basis but bases its report on the incidence rate in the two weeks prior. This means that even if the new measures introduced last week to slow the current wave of infections turn out to be successful Iceland is likely to remain red-listed for at least two weeks, Mbl.is reports.

Iceland‘s Covid-19 notification rate went from "red" to "yellow" in November of 2020 and was moved to "green" last January.

Once on the red list Icelanders can expect to have a harder time visiting other countries as can foreign visitors who have spent any time on the island. ai@mbl.is

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