With testing, Iceland claims major success against COVID-19

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By EGILL BJARNASON

HVAMMSTANGI, Iceland (AP) — Winter storms isolated the northern village of Hvammstangi from the rest of Iceland. Then spring brought the coronavirus, isolating villagers from each other. Now, as summer approaches, residents hope life is getting back to some kind of normal.

High schools, hair salons, dentists and other businesses across Iceland are reopening Monday after six weeks of lockdown, after this North Atlantic nation managed to tame its coronavirus outbreak.

Iceland has confirmed 1,799 cases of the virus, but just 10 people have died. The number of new COVID-19 cases each day has fallen from 106 at the peak of the outbreak to single digits — even, on some days, zero.

“I didn’t expect the recovery to be this fast,” said Iceland’s chief epidemiologist, Thorolfur Gudnason.



In this photo taken on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, people gather at a restaurant in Reykjavik after the country recorded days of zero new cases of COVID-19. High schools, dentists and hair salons are about to reopen in Iceland, which has managed to get a grip on the coronavirus through the world’s most extensive regime of testing. By identifying infected people even when they had no symptoms, the tiny North Atlantic nation managed to identify and isolate cases where many bigger countries have struggled. (AP Photo/Egill Bjarnason)


Read more: https://apnews.com/b13115dba10ad0aa4f9e1f22a3403c3b

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. New Brunswick, province in Canada w greater pop than Iceland, has 14 days without a single new case.

Control (not eradication, but control) of the outbreak is doable.

Cheers for Iceland too!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. "The tiny North Atlantic nation".

Small population and able to isolate itself completely is helpful.

[BComplex]

3. I love Iceland's government.

I want to be them!

[iluvtennis]

4. They tested, iosloated, and did contact tracing - those are the keys!

Iceland’s success is partly testament to its tiny population — just 360,000 people. But it also reflects decisive action by authorities, who used a rigorous policy of testing and tracking to find and isolate infected people, even when they had no symptoms.

[Politicub]

5. Iceland's population is 365,000

The county where I live has almost 800,000 people, and we’re in a metro of 5.8 million. It’s a lot easier to trace the movement of a whole country with a handful of people that does not border another country.

I’m kind of meh about this as a success story.

[Hestia]

6. A news story yesterday intimated that is is densely packed inner cities that spread the virus.

I cannot for the life of me remember which show - PBS News Weekend?

The more spread out people are, the spread slows in traveling.

Please don't come here. We've been bought up by private hedge & equity funds as it is.