Reykjavík Grapevine - Apr 2021, Page 4

What Are Icelanders
Talkin! About?
Shake, rattle and roll
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photos: Art Bicnick
The biggest contro -
versy shaking Iceland
right now is the new quarantine
hotel. That is, anyone coming to
the country—whether tourists or
Icelandic citizens—had to spend
five days in an upscale hotel, with
the room and food mostly covered
by the state. This was done because
asking those arriving in Iceland to
quarantine themselves between
COVID-19 screenings apparently
wasn’t working, with some disre-
garding quarantine altogether.
This new policy was, however, in
a legal grey area, and has led to
some Icelanders challenging the
hotel quarantine in court. Lawyers
representing these people have
described this five-day hotel stay in
terms like “worse than prison” and
“gulag” and “North Korea.” Interest-
ingly, none of these lawyers have
said a word about asylum seeker
shelters, which have been covered
extensively by the media for years
now as being demonstrably worse
than Icelandic prisons. The chal-
lenge in Reykjavík District Court led
to the court finding that the Icelan-
dic government did not have the
authority to put people in this hotel
if they already had a legal address
in Iceland, or otherwise had a place
to quarantine in. Now Parliament
must reconvene to make quaran-
tine regulations clearer, and legal.
We probably wouldn’t need to worry
so much about this if everyone had
received a COVID-19 vaccine, but
shots have been rolling out much
slower than expected. Minister
of Health Svandís Svavarsdóttir
told reporters last February that
some 190,000 Icelanders would be
vaccinated by the end of June—
”numbers we can stand by”, as she
put it—yet at the time of this writ-
ing, only just over 24,000 people
have been fully vaccinated (bear-
ing in mind that “fully vaccinated”
means a person has received both
shots and a grace period of about
two weeks has elapsed). At this rate,
by the end of June authorities will
only be about halfway to their goal.
While authorities quietly updated
their vaccination schedule, the
public has taken notice, and opposi-
tion MPs have asked what the hold
up is. Despite this, Prime Minister
Katrín Jakobsdóttir has insisted the
government fully intends to meet
their stated goal. Only time will tell.
Oh yeah, the volcano in Gelding-
adalur is still erupting—in fact,
two new fissures have opened up
about 500 m from the original
eruption site — and the antics of
people trekking to see the volcano
has been worrying Civic Protection
and health authorities. Some visi-
tors seem to think the hike to the
volcano is a short, pleasant jaunt,
rather than the hours-long hike
through challenging conditions it
is in reality. This has led to some
minor injuries, and in at least one
case necessitating rescue. Civic
Protection has reminded people
to dress for freezing temperatures
and wet weather, to equip their
boots with spikes, pack food and
to have a fully-charged phone. You
would also do well to remember
that there is still a pandemic going
on, so masking up and maintaining
social distance is still a must. And if
Civic Protection staff on the scene
tell you that the dangerous volcanic
gases have shifted and you must
leave, by all means do so—evacua-
tion is not an optional thing.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 04— 2021First
NEWS
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