Neither Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir nor Health Minister Svandís Svavarsdóttir have COVID-19. Both ministers got tested due to experiencing flu symptoms. All of Iceland’s ministers have now had to be tested for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, RÚV reports.
Neither Katrín nor Svandís were in attendance at a cabinet meeting yesterday morning as they had both been experiencing flu symptoms. Katrín announced afterwards that she had tested negative for COVID-19, and that influenza was the culprit that had “knocked out half [her] household.” Svandís was also tested yesterday after experiencing flu symptoms.
Much of Iceland’s cabinet needed to get tested following a dinner at Hotel Rangá last month, after a staff member of the hotel had tested positive for COVID-19. All of the cabinet has been tested at least once for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In her Facebook post, Katrín encouraged all Icelanders to practice individual preventative measures. “We must all be careful, let’s remember to wash our hands, use hand sanitiser, keep our distance and do everything we can together to bring down this third wave of the virus.”
