Iceland now categorized as RED

NordenBladet — The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has published its latest update on the global Covid-19 epidemic and moved Iceland from an “orange” classification to “red”.

As Iceland Monitor reported the ECDC placed Iceland in the orange category last week following a recent jump in the Covid-19 notification rate.

Iceland is in the lower of the two red categories and shares a colour code with e.g. Estonia, parts of Denmark, Portugal and the Italian region of Sicily.

According to the Covid.is information website the domestic 14-day incidence per 100.000 inhabitants now stands at 414.5 cases. Currently 18 people are hospitalized, 1,388 are in isolation and 1,988 in quarantine.

It should be pointed out to readers that not all European countries follow the ECDC classification with e.g. the UK and Germany using their own methodology to compare Covid-19 risks between countries. Under the German system Iceland is currently rated “green” which is the lowest risk category.

Each state also sets its own rules on how a country‘s ECDC classification affects restrictions on travel to and from a red listed country but the European Union recommends that people neither visit nor travel from countries in the red category.

US authorities have also changed Iceland‘s classification and now warn unvaccinated travellers from visiting the island. Meanwhile Mbl.is reports that Israel has introduced new restrictions on travels to Iceland, requiring both vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers to provide two negative PCR test results and also quarantine for seven days on arrival in Israel.