Iceland’s Ministry of Health has lifted all remaining public COVID-19 restrictions on Friday, February 25th both domestically and at the border. It also includes lifting the 200-person indoor gathering limit and restricted opening hours for bars.
“Minister of Health, Willum Þór Þórsson has decided that as of Friday 25 February all public restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be lifted, both domestically and at the border. Thereby all rules regarding limitations on social gatherings and school operations as well as the quarantine requirement for those infected by COVID-19 are removed. Additionally, no disease prevention measures will be in place at the border, regardless of whether individuals are vaccinated or unvaccinated,” the news release stated on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health encourages as many people to get infected with Covid-19 in order to achieve “widespread societal resistance” or “herd immunity.” They said the vaccines were not enough.
Independent reported:
Iceland ’s health ministry has said it wants “as many people as possible” to be infected with the coronavirus to achieve “widespread societal resistance”.
“Widespread societal resistance to Covid-19 is the main route out of the epidemic,” the health ministry said in a statement, citing infectious disease authorities.
It added that to achieve widespread societal resistance, which is also referred to as “herd immunity”, “as many people as possible needed to be infected with the virus as the vaccines are not enough, even though they provide good protection against serious illness”.
Iceland, with a population of approximately 368,000 people, has registered between 2,100 and 2,800 daily infections recently. More than 115,000 infections have been logged throughout the epidemic and 60 have died as a result of Covid.
As of February 25, Iceland reported the highest daily average reported and Covid infections are at their peak with 78.9% double vaccinated and 67.7% received a booster shot. So what Science has changed?
