A few days ago I posted on the All Things Iceland Instagram and Facebook pages that I do plan to give a rundown of how the Coronavirus is spreading in Iceland and what the government has been doing to control it. I do not plan to give updates every few days about the virus.
I think it is important to talk about it. However, I mainly created All Things Iceland to share about Icelandic culture, history, language and nature. Not to just focus on one topic. Also, I think it is nice to be able to escape the news for a while and hear about Iceland.
Like many others, I am closely monitoring what is going on with the virus where I live. I want to do as much as I can to stay safe. I still do my weekly news round-up in my Instagram stories each Sunday. You can check that out if you want to hear about what happened in Iceland the week before.
As I thought about how to format this particular episode, it dawned on me that it might be helpful to give you a bit of backstory regarding when Icelandic officials made it public that they were starting to prepare for the virus coming to the country. Also, I am going to speak a little about how deeply this affects the Icelandic economy, especially the tourism industry.
When Did Iceland Start to Prepare for the Coronavirus?
To start off, Iceland did take note when the World Health Organization’s (or the WHO) China office started sharing reports of the virus spreading in the Eastern Chinese city Wuhan in late December and into January. Of course no one knew it would spread so quickly around the world. In late January, Iceland started to prepare for it possibly coming our way.
According to Iceland Monitor, on January 27th, Þórarinn Guðnason, the Chief Epidemiologist in Iceland, recommended that Icelanders should,
Cancel any unnecessary trips to areas in China affected by the coronavirus, known to cause pneumonia, coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. This applies in particular to the Hubei province.
Þórarinn Guðnason, the Chief Epidemiologist in Iceland
He was also said “health care officials in Iceland are preparing for the possible spread of the virus to Iceland. “That is our approach – that this will arrive in Iceland… We try to prepare as well as possible. We prepare for the worst, hoping it won’t happen. But we assume it will arrive here.”
Chinese Tourism Was on the Rise in Iceland
One thing many people who live outside of Iceland may not be aware of is that Chinese tourism in the country has been on the rise over the last couple of years. Some of the tourists are groups coming directly from China and others are people who were born in China but are studying or working abroad in different places, such as in Europe.
I have worked in tourism Iceland for about four years, from 2016 to present day and it was clear that even though U.S. visitors were still the highest number of tourists that it was evident that numbers were declining fast. Chinese tourists were starting to increase rapidly, especially during the Chinese New Year.
According to an article published in January of this year, Iceland was expecting no less than 130,000 Chinese tourists, which would have been more than the number of Germans expected to visit, and Germans are the third numerous group behind the United States and the United Kingdom. 130,000 might not seem like a lot when you think about the fact that almost two million people visited Iceland in 2019.
However, the potential for more Chinese tourists was growing exponentially. I reported in my weekly news round-up on Instagram back in November that a Chinese airline Juneyao was going to start offering direct flight service from Shanghai to Keflavík airport in March. Of course that is not happening now but that should at least give you an idea that ties between Iceland and China were strengthening.
The tourism industry in Iceland is very competitive and all of the companies are fighting for market share. Many of them have been trying to capture the Chinese market because they could all see the writing on the wall.
Icelanders Expected Coronavirus Infections to Come Directly From China
As a person that lives here and pays a decent amount of attention to the news as well as talks to natives and expats, I can tell you that most of us assumed that Iceland wouldn’t be hit hard by this virus. It felt a world away. Also, most people thought that since this virus originally popped up in China, that it will be either Chinese visitors or Icelanders that had been in China or an already labeled “high risk” area that would bring the virus to the island. Well, to many’s surprise that is not what happened.
People on the Front Lines Started to Prepare
Before any cases of the virus were confirmed in Iceland, a few interesting things happened. First, which was reported on January 31st, is that some employees at Keflavík airport started wearing face masks and gloves. Ísavia, the company that operates the airport, said that they provide the masks and gloves to their employees but it was up to them to wear them.
The second is that Landspítali National University Hospital started reviewing their contingency plans, started planning out routes if they have to transport infected patients to minimize risk of spreading, put in place protective equipment like hospital suits, googles, etc and began educating their medical staff.
As you can tell, the people that work on the front lines such as in travel, like at the check in counters and flight attendants as well as those working in hospitals, were doing their best to prepare. Most of us not in those professions were just going about our daily lives even though the virus has spread to about twenty countries at that time. Also, it was encouraged to only test people if the person suspected they have been infected, which basically meant that the person had just come from China and felt ill. That was in early February.
Icelandic Family Tries to Get Home From China
On February 20th, an Icelandic family (two parents and a child) that had been traveling in China for what was suspected to be quite some time since the outbreak began, requested permission to come home. At that time, the European Union was organizing a flight to bring back European citizens from China and Icelandic authorities were trying to get the family on that plane. Luckily, that was a success.
The family traveled from Wuhan to France and then onto Iceland. They were examined upon arrival and then were instructed to be in quarantine at home for about 14 days. It is important to note that they did not feel ill when they left China nor when they came to Iceland.
Just one day after the family arrived in Iceland, it was reported that seven Icelanders vacationing in Tenerife were in quarantine along with 1,000 other people at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel. The Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago and are the southernmost part of Spain. They are a popular vacationing spot for many Europeans, Icelanders included. I had the pleasure of going to Tenerife, the largest of the islands, two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. You can probably find Icelandic people there at almost any time of the year because there are many direct flights from here to Terenrife. The isolation was due to the fact that an Italian doctor that was a guest at the hotel tested positive with the coronavirus. Police were standing guard at the hotel to make sure that no one entered or left.
The First Confirmed Case in Iceland Was Announced
On February 28th, the dam finally broke. Iceland confirmed its first case of Coronavirus. Surprisingly, the Icelandic man who had the virus had been on a skiing trip with a group of other Icelanders in Northern Italy, which was outside of a defined risk area. The man is in his forties had arrived in Iceland on February 22nd, which means that he was walking around with the virus in the country for some days. After falling ill, he was scanned at the hospital and immediately put in isolation after his infection was confirmed. His daughter and wife were also inspected. On top of that, policemen were trying to trace where he had been since arriving back to Iceland.
After this confirmed infection, it was like a domino effect. More confirmed cases started popping up after just a few days. In less than three weeks, Iceland went from having no confirmed cases to having 182 and over 1900 in quarantine in the country, specifically in the Reykjavík area, which has about three fourths of the population of Iceland. That is according to the numbers that were reported on Monday, March 16th, 2020 at 4:30 pm. I include a graph from a Morgunblaðið article below that shows how the number of cases has increased in this time frame.
Confirmed Infections Are Being Announced Daily in Iceland
A pretty scary occurrence is that five critical care nurses at the National Hospital were infected with the virus. Two of the nurses had been on the ski trip that I mentioned to you earlier and infected their colleagues while on shift together. They are all now in quarantine. Obviously that puts a big strain on that unit.
One very important thing to know is that up until Thursday, March 12th the majority of the people in the country with confirmed cases of the Coronavirus were Icelanders that had been on skiing trips in the Alps (Northern Italy, Austria and Switzerland) and any people that had close contact with those infected people before it was known that they had the virus. It is still the case that over 65% of the infections were due to exposure in a foreign place but now around 28% of the infections happened domestically, The other small percentage of how people became infected is unknown.
The Icelandic Government’s Response to the Spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
With that information, you are probably wondering how the government has responded to all of this. As mentioned in the very beginning of this episode, Iceland’s Chief Epidemiologist did put out a warning about the Coronavirus and expected that it would make its way here. It wouldn’t have been possible to test every single person coming from areas that were not labeled as high risk.
The number is bound to keep going up. Here is an overview of how the government has been handling this incredibly difficult situation. First off, they have been extremely transparent and diligent in informing the public about the confirmed Coronavirus cases. On March 6th, the number of confirmed cases hit 43 and a state of emergency was put in place. Viðir Reynisson, Chief superintendent stated on that day to reporters, “…A ban on public gatherings is probably one of the most effective tools we have in our tool box to slow down the spread of the virus, and we must apply it correctly and in as effective a way as possible. We’re not there yet, but it is inescapable, we believe, that we’ll take that route at some point in time.”
Parliament Pledges to Help Businesses & People in Quarantine
In order to help businesses, the government announced on March 10th that they would take certain action to support and stimulate the economy during this turbulent time. Because tourism is being hit the hardest, they are considering cancelling taxes and fees for that sector for a limited time. After we are in the clear from this outbreak, a major international advertising campaign will launch to attract travelers. Icelanders will be encouraged to travel more domestically. Because all companies will feel the effect of what is happening, the government is working closely with financial services companies and banks.
The Icelandic government has also pledged that all people who are in quarantine will still receive their salaries.
Updates About the Virus Happen Daily
Ever since the first confirmed Coronavirus case on February 28th, there have been daily updates on Facebook by the Almannavarnadeild Ríkislögreglustjóra. That is the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management. It might seem odd that this happens on Facebook but over 90% of Iceland is active on the platform. They have been great about announcing press conferences about the Coronavirus, the amount of new cases each day and more.
Two things happened that made some people in Iceland who were already critical of how the government was handling the situation raise their concerns even louder. On March 12th, the news outlets exploded after Trump announced a travel ban on citizens from many European countries. Also, Norway announced that they would shut its borders to stop the spread of the virus. In response to that and more cases being confirmed in Iceland, the government announced a ban on gatherings of more than 100 people on Friday, March 13th.
Some Icelandic Schools Close
All colleges and high schools would be closed. However, preschools and primary schools will still be open starting on Monday, March 16th. This is in place for the next four weeks. Companies of less than 100 people can decide if they are closing. Employees are instructed to keep a 2 meter distance from each other. The reason why preschools and primary schools are still open is that it will be difficult for emergency workers and others needed to help with the Coronavirus outbreak to find people to watch their children. It is a bit of a tricky situation and I have heard arguments for and against it.
Some feel that Iceland should stop people from coming into the country. However, that has not happened as of yet and it might not.
Icelandair Feels the Heat After the U.S. Travel Ban
In February, Icelandair had already made announcements about reducing flights because of how the virus is spreading in Europe. Still, the travel ban to the United States hit them hard. Like I said before, the U.S. is the largest market for the airline. Even though at the time of the announcement, U.S. citizens could still travel to Iceland, many were cancelling their flights. Like many airlines around the world, Icelandair’s stock fell by 22% after the travel ban was announced. To my surprise, the airline still plans to go ahead with scheduled flights to New York, Chicago, Seattle and Washington D.C., over the next 30 days.
As in the U.S., people in Iceland started to get more antsy. Many went to stores to buy toilet paper and other goods. I had to laugh that the news outlets had to put out articles telling people not to hoard. Also, the the sale of canned food has gone up a tremendous amount in some stores. Over the weekend, I purposely stayed away from Costco because it can be quite busy on a regular weekend, so I wanted to avoid any madness.
The Ban on Gatherings is Expanded in Iceland
Over the weekend, the ban on gatherings was further clarified. It was announced that in-person conferences, large meetings, going to the cinema, the theater and so on are banned. Restaurants must arrange their seating to have two meters between tables. Families can sit together but those in different parties must be far enough apart. The restaurants and tourism companies must have hand sanitizer available for guests to use as well.
The fascinating part is that as of March 15th, only Icelandic residents traveling from countries with major outbreaks need to enter quarantine when they arrive in Iceland. Tourists from those same countries do not need to be in quarantine but they are asked to respect social distancing. That last part is a bit worrying to me.
deCode Genetics Steps in to Help Screen People for the Virus
On March 9th, the CEO of deCode Genetics Kári Stefánsson, who I interviewed in episode 50 of this podcast, offered to help the national hospital with screening people for the virus. He is quoted as saying,
We want to help Landspítali [National University Hospital], which has limited capacity,” …“We have the equipment, a lab equipped for work with viruses, and people who are experts at this. What we want to do, in addition to what Landspítali has been doing, is to do a sequence analysis of the virus in those who turn out positive. The idea behind that is to find out how the virus is mutating.
Kári Stefánsson, CEO of decode genetics
This was welcomed by everyone except the Data Protection Authority and the Ethical Review Committee. They felt that the action might require a permit as a scientific study. However, that issue was resolved and now deCode has started to help screen people.
Foss Hotel has been turned into a quarantine for visitors and Icelanders who need a place to stay.
Website Created to Find Updates About the Coronavirus in Iceland
Lastly, an awesome website was recently launched in Iceland to keep people informed about the virus. Data, like the number of confirmed infections, the number of those in quarantine and more is on the site. Of course there is also a lot of information about how to protect yourself and the groups most at risk. The text is available in Icelandic and English. The Directorate of Health and The Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management are responsible for this website.
I hope you found this episode helpful when it comes to understanding how the Coronavirus is affecting Iceland. To stay up to date with what I am posting, you can subscribe to my newsletter.
Random Fact of the Episode
On March 15th, Visir published the first results of the voluntary screening by deCode Genetics. About 1% of all Icelanders have the Coronavirus. This is relatively good news but we will get a better picture as more screenings are done.
Icelandic word of the episode
Bros er betra en koss og knús
Let’s be social! Here is where you can connect with me:
Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að hlusta (og að lesa) og sjáumst fljótlega
Thank you kindly for listening (and reading) and see you soon!