Reykjavík Grapevine - ágú. 2020, Blaðsíða 11

11 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 06— 2020
Iceland is currently experiencing a
resurgence of incidences of the novel
coronavirus. That much is incontro-
vertible. But when it comes to what
we can attribute to this resurgence—
Iceland opening the borders again, or
locals eschewing health guidelines—
things get a bit more murky, and the
discussion gets heated.
In order to get to the bottom of this,
we need to examine what we know
about the timeline of events so far, and
the origins of infections. Throughout,
there is much the Icelandic authorities
could have done better.
The doors swing wide
Last June 15th, Iceland opened its
borders again to Schengen area coun-
tries, later adding four countries that
could skip border screening, in addi-
tion to the Faroe Islands and Green-
land.
At the time of this writing, 39 people
have been detected through border
screening to have active coronavirus
infections, of the nearly 120,000 people
who have visited Iceland since June
15th. Certainly a small proportion, but
do we know if any of those people have
infected Icelanders?
To date, there is no evidence of any
foreign tourist having infected any
Icelanders. There was one initial report
that a foreign tourist had infected a
tour guide, but it later came to light
that the spouse of the tour guide in
question also had the virus, and that
spouse had a sibling in a group infec-
tion in Akranes, which was itself
traced back to an Icelandic resident.
Even deCODE Genetics CEO Kári
Stefánsson, long a critic of opening
the borders, has conceded that no new
cases of the virus have come from any
of the “safe countries” that Iceland has
permitted to visit without screening.
While Icelanders are subjected to a
more rigorous border screening and
social restrictions upon arrival in the
country, this particular Icelandic resi-
dent fell through the cracks because
he did not speak Icelandic, and there-
fore was given the English language
guidelines, which are directed at tour-
ists. Bear in mind that Icelanders have
always been free to travel to and from
the country—even before June 15th.
Relaxing domestic
restrictions
Many people have been diligent to
draw a direct correlation between the
June 15th re-opening and the more
recent resurgence of coronavirus
cases—despite all available evidence
showing that tourists are not infecting
Icelanders. The use of this correlation
also ignores another important thing
that happened on this date: the expan-
sion of the social gathering limit.
On June 15th, gatherings of up to 500
people were permitted in Iceland, bars
and clubs were allowed to stay open
until 23:00, capacity limits of local
swimming pools were lifted, and the
two-metre social distancing rule was
relaxed. Icelanders embraced this new-
found freedom with gusto—summer
is a special time for Icelanders, with
many of them on vacation during this
period and looking for a good time, and
locals actively sought to get out and
party.
The effects of this have been observ-
able, with the new domestic cases
frequently traced back to public gath-
erings.
Party hard
Over the Merchant’s Holiday week-
end—a very popular festival for
Icelanders—two new cases cropped
up in the Westman Islands, which is
the premiere destination for Iceland-
ers during this festival, and 78 people
were put into quarantine as a result.
Clubs and bars have been packed, and
one group infection was traced back
to a group of Icelanders who visited a
restaurant last July.
New domestic cases also ended up
cropping up at the Icelandic Trans-
port Authority and the Reykjavík area
police, none of which have been traced
back to tourists.
Restrictions ignored
The flourishing of domestic cases
prompted authorities at the end of July
to reinstate restrictions, including a
public gathering ban of no more than
100 people, the return of the two-metre
social distancing rule, the requirement
to provide sanitiser, and the wearing of
masks on ferries and domestic flights.
These new guidelines do not appear
to be respected by far too many locals.
Police visited some 24 restaurants and
entertainment venues over the second
weekend of August and found that 14
of them were violating the new restric-
tions.
To be fair, the public could be
forgiven for being confused by the ever-
changing guidelines. In some cases,
there has been a demonstrable lack of
clear communication between relevant
authorities. One stunning example of
this was when it was announced that
masks would be required on city buses.
Strætó, the capital area bus service,
were apparently never consulted on
this matter, and would later say they
would only strongly recommend that
people wear masks. Clearly, relevant
authorities need to do better when it
comes to domestic pandemic policy.
It is hard to ignore the direct line of
cause and effect between the relaxing
of domestic restrictions, a resurgence
of domestic cases, the reinstatement of
restrictions, the continued and worry-
ing flouting of these, and the contin-
ued resurgence of domestic cases—all
of them traced back to locals. Nonethe-
less, calls to close the borders remain
prominent.
Until when?
Kári has been actively advocating for
closing the borders, and Prime Minis-
ter Katrín Jakobsdóttir has said she is
considering new border restrictions,
despite all evidence showing the resur-
gence of domestic cases can be directly
connected to domestic activity.
In fairness, Kári has emphasised
that tourists have not played a role in
the second wave; rather, he is cautious
that they might. But the talk of closing
the borders leaves one important ques-
tion unanswered: until when? Until a
vaccine is widely available? Until the
virus disappears from the face of the
earth? No one has been able to answer
the question adequately.
Politicisation of a virus
It cannot be ignored that there is a
political aspect to this discussion.
Minister of Tourism !órdís Kolbrún
Gylfadóttir, who is also a member of
the conservative Independence Party,
recently told RÚV that there is an
“acceptable risk” in continuing to allow
tourists to come to Iceland. This unfor-
tunate wording has struck a nerve with
many Icelanders, many of whom feel
that the re-opening of the borders in
the first place was a decision based
more on greed than science.
As in other parts of the world,
discussions about how to deal with the
coronavirus certainly have a political
aspect in Iceland. This is unfortunate.
Our public health policy must be based
in science; so far, the science is show-
ing that tourists have not caused the
second wave. It does, however, under-
line the importance of all of us taking
part in the collective responsibility of
protecting one another, with relevant
authorities communicating and coor-
dinating better—no matter how bad
we might want to shift the blame else-
where.
Iceland’s Second COVID
Wave: Who’s To Blame?
The conversation !ets heated
It's a social distance showdown at COVIDCon
Words:
Andie Sophia
Fontaine
Photos:
Art Bicnick