Iceland’s Health Minister Willum Þór Þórsson announced to media today that mandatory isolation for COVID-19 positive individuals will be shortened from seven days to five. Willum made the announcement in a radio interview this morning. The new regulations are to take effect this Monday, February 7.
“The illness varies among people so people must of course show caution and take care of themselves,” Willum stated, underlining that patients must be symptom-free to be discharged from isolation. Asked when mask regulations would be lifted, Willum stated: “I think that’s coming soon, everything is on our side.”
Icelandic authorities announced a plan to lift all domestic COVID-19 restrictions by mid-March, including isolation and quarantine due to COVID-19. The country has been reporting around 1,500 daily cases in recent weeks – nevertheless, the number of patients in hospital due to COVID-19 has dropped over the past week. Local data shows that around 90% of COVID-19 cases in Iceland are due to the Omicron strain, which has lower rates of hospitalisation and serious illness than the Delta strain of SARS-CoV-2. Isolation was shortened from 10 days to 7 in December of last year and quarantine regulations were significantly relaxed in January.
