REYKJAVIK: Fitness center courses, blissful hours and the near-normal life loved to this point by the folks of Iceland ended abruptly on Thursday when the federal government ordered new restrictions after detecting six coronavirus circumstances believed to be the variant first present in Britain.
Authorities ordered all faculties closed, in addition to gyms, swimming pools, theaters, cinemas and bars. Eating places, outlets and hairdressers can stay open in a restricted capability. Gatherings of greater than 10 folks will likely be banned for 3 weeks.
“We have to hit the brake,” Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir stated Thursday.
Iceland has had simply 5,384 circumstances and 29 deaths from COVID-19, in line with official figures. However up to now week, six folks have been contaminated with the British variant, which authorities say is extra transmissible amongst younger folks.
“This variant appears to unfold sooner amongst kids than we’ve got beforehand skilled,” the prime minister added, referring to current reported circumstances in faculties within the capital Reykjavík. A pupil and a instructor at a Reykjavik faculty have been among the many six folks identified with the British variant.
Authorities consider the six folks contaminated with the extra contagious variant could have contaminated some 22 others earlier than they have been identified and instructed to quarantine.
A examine printed in Norway this week by the Nationwide Institute of Public Well being advised that individuals contaminated with the U.Okay. variant are 2.6 occasions extra more likely to be hospitalized. The examine additionally advised that younger folks and adults below 40 are extra susceptible to the variant.
Iceland had saved faculties open for kids below 16 for the reason that begin of the pandemic. The federal government now expects college students to remain house previous the Easter holidays.
Haukur Tryggvason, the proprietor of a reside music venue within the northern city of Akureyri, stated the restrictions dashed hopes of a giant Easter occasion. Musicians on the venue had been allowed to carry out for a masked crowd of as much as 50 folks.
The city, a well-liked winter sports activities getaway, has skilled a rise in home guests to assist make up for the absence of worldwide vacationers.
“Easter weekend was set to be a giant break,” Tryggvason stated. “I used to be fully offered out.”
Tighter virus restrictions have been the second massive occasion to rock the Atlantic Ocean island nation within the final week. An extended-dormant volcano in southwestern Iceland flared to life on March 19 on Reykjanes Peninsula, close to the capital of Reykjavik. It was the world’s first volcanic eruption in almost 800 years.
