REYKJAVIK, Iceland – “We are open,” Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir said in a recent interview.
Students are in classrooms. Partygoers are crowded in bars and restaurants. Tourists are welcome. The country has not recorded any cases of domestic transmission of the Covid-19 for weeks and has managed to keep dangerous new variants outside, without closing the borders.
“If I think about this pandemic, what really stands out is, really, how the Icelandic public has participated, how people really place their trust in the advice of experts and scientists,” said Jakobsdóttir. “They really changed their behavior.”
Many other countries have imposed strict national restrictions to control the spread of the coronavirus, but Iceland has not resorted to such extreme measures. Instead, he focused on a rigorous testing, tracking, quarantine and isolation system – and relied on visitors and residents to obey him.
As a remote volcanic island in the North Atlantic, close to the Arctic Circle, with a small population of around 350,000, Iceland has intrinsic advantages when it comes to controlling the pandemic. But Jakobsdóttir also credits the public health system, clear communication with the public and a general feeling of solidarity for the country’s success.
“People are really respecting the rules. They are following the rules, ”she said.
Iceland’s procedure for entering the country is quite simple: visitors and returning citizens must submit negative PCR tests on arrival and then take the test at the airport and again after five days in quarantine.
“Ninety-eight percent of people show up for the second test,” said Jakobsdóttir. “And I think this is an incredible result.”
Still, Iceland recorded more than 6,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 29 deaths. Thórólfur Guðnason, Iceland’s chief epidemiologist, said the focus now is on preventing another wave as the country begins to open its borders further.
Government consultants decided to allow people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or who have had previously documented coronavirus infections to skip quarantine. Although the World Health Organization did not support the idea of vaccine passports that would allow some to avoid quarantine, Guðnason said he had seen sufficient preliminary results from countries like Israel, which vaccinated a large part of its population, which suggest that they did not. would transmit the virus.
“It is necessary to open the borders in some way. We have tried to do this in a scientific way, ”he said.
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Brent Ozar, an information technology consultant from San Diego, moved to Iceland on a remote work visa, which several countries have offered to attract foreigners. Iceland’s visa for remote workers allows foreigners to live and work in the country for up to six months, as long as they meet certain requirements.
“I ended up in Iceland because I have asthma and, when the coronavirus hit, we thought of all the places we could go in the world, and Iceland was just a magical place to go and be socially distant for a while,” he said. “It’s like living in the country, maybe Michigan or Ohio, but with a real European touch.”
Ozar said that in addition to the location, however, he also feels much more secure, as the public takes the threat of the coronavirus seriously.
“I don’t have to worry about getting into elevators with people who don’t wear masks,” he said.
Solidarity has also allowed Iceland to keep its schools open, which other countries have struggled to do. In Iceland, children under the age of 16 have been attending classrooms since August.
“This has been a top priority for us,” said Jakobsdóttir, who was elected in 2017 at the age of 41, making her one of the youngest leaders in the world.
She said that when she decided to keep schools open, she also considered the effect this would have on women and their ability to work.
“I think if there is one lesson we can learn from this pandemic, it is the importance of women’s work around the world, in the health sector, in the pension systems,” she said.
And despite Iceland’s success in controlling the pandemic, Jakobsdóttir said he remains concerned about new variants of the coronavirus – as well as other dangers besides Covid-19.
More than 20,000 earthquakes have rocked the Reykjanes Peninsula in recent weeks, and scientists fear that a volcano could erupt in the area. Jakobsdóttir had to postpone the interview for several hours because she had to chair a disaster preparedness meeting.
“When I talk about success, I do it knowing that things can change and can change very quickly,” she said. “Let’s say we are going to be alert.”