Iceland has taken an intensely scientific response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with extensive screening and in-depth sequencing. The fight against the virus is still ongoing, but it seems that their approach was worth it.
As of January 18 at 14:00 GMT, Iceland had 5,970 confirmed infections, including 53 admissions to intensive care units and 29 deaths, according to government data.
Their perceptions of the outbreak are much deeper, however. AFP reports that they managed to sequence the genetic material of each positive viral infection with the help of deCODE genetics, a biotechnology company based in Reykjavík. From the beginning, the country has invited apparently healthy people to people tested in an attempt to better understand asymptotic carriers and transmission. This saw them examine more than 250,000 samples, accounting for more than half of the island’s total residents.
The wealth of data also helped to clearly guide the government’s response to the outbreak. When there was a noticeable increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in mid-September 2020, the authorities managed track the outbreak back to a single Irish pub in the capital Reykjavík. In response, all pubs and bars were immediately closed for a short time in Reykjavík and other neighboring communities.
Iceland’s screening detected 41 carriers of the “UK variant”, or VOC 202012/01, a recently detected virus variant that is linked to a significant increase in the rate of COVID-19 infections in the UK. Fortunately, thanks to PCR tests at their airports, cases were promptly identified at the border and stopped before they could be presented to their population.
Other countries dealt with the pandemic more effectivelyvely with regard to the number of deaths and hospitalizations. A notable example it is New Zealand, which saw only 25 deaths in its population of 5 million. In fact, overall 2020 mortality rates in the country have dropped compared to previous years. However, Iceland has the advantage of having a relatively small and genetically homogeneous population. Along with prolific testing, this created an in-depth case study of how COVID-19 can spread across the population.
“In an attempt to carefully map the molecular epidemiology of COVID-19 in Iceland, we hope to provide the world with data to use in the collective global effort to stem the spread of the disease,” said Kari Stefansson, CEO of deCODE genetics, in a declaration in June 2020.
Preliminary data from Iceland suggested that about half of those who test positive for COVID-19 in the country it showed no symptoms – an insight that was only possible because they tested people who had no symptoms and apparently were not infected. More findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in June 2020, suggesting that children under 10 years old and women had a lower incidence of infection than adolescents or adults and men. Another Icelandic study in NEJM showed promisingly that antibodies against SARS-CoV2 do not decrease within four months of being infected.
Now, it appears that Iceland has the outbreak relatively under control, though not entirely canceled. As of mid-January 2021, the country currently had about 16 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, 19 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and zero patients in intensive care.