Ugh. I really didn’t want to have to do two blog posts in a row on COVID.
Unfortunately it’s kind of on my mind a lot at the moment since I spent most of Sunday in a decongestant imposed stupor, having a 6 inch COVID testing swab shoved up my nose and down my throat. (I’m negative for COVID-19 by the way. I just have normal flu. Lovely lovely seasonal normal flu).
My mum and I were talking about how Iceland seems to be managing this pandemic so much better than other countries, and her main question was….how? I’m not a medic or an epidemiological expert by any means and I think we’re far far from turning the tide but here’s where we *are* doing well.
- We’re testing so much. SO MUCH. Most countries are only testing people with symptoms and some are not even doing that **cough** UK government start damn well testing your key workers at least **cough**. Iceland are offering tests – subject to swab availability – to *every* resident. We’ve made ground breaking discoveries about the percentage of asymptomatic cases. Knowledge is power. You know who has the virus, you can better work out the potential spread, and clusters of cases.
- A phone app has been set up to track people’s movements. This requires a two factor authentication. You basically turn on geo-tracking on your phone so it can see when and where you go for a run/to the supermarket/(to the state liquor store). You have to give permission for this to happen. If you are then at any later time diagnosed with COVID-19 you have to give permission again for scientists to access your data. It’s hoped that this can identify any key areas or ‘hot spots’ as to where the virus is being transmitted. Although this has been tried in other countries, it’s hoped that it’ll be a lot more successful in Iceland given it seems an easier project to co-ordinate with a smaller (and very socially conscious) population.
- The government here were ahead of the UK in announcing they were going to take the unprecedented step of stepping in to pay people’s wages. We therefore didn’t really have the thing here where lower paid, or gig economy workers went to work while potentially infected or exposed, while the government pratted around deciding on strategy.
- People here are on the whole quite stoic. Worried, but not panicked. We haven’t seen huge lines at the supermarkets. Nothing has sold out. There is some talk of upcoming shortages of some fresh vegetables – as some cannot be grown in Icelandic greenhouses – but we’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.
- State sanctioned health and safety is a big thing – the supermarkets here give out gloves for free. There are paper towels and alcohol or disinfecting spray for wiping down your basket or trolley. There’s no excuse not to be careful or socially conscious when the resources to do so are free and right in front of you.
- Our Chief Epidemiologist and Chief Superintendent are both awesome, and they run a daily press conference to update people. The Chief Superintendent has also become a bit of a heart-throb due to his dry sense of humour – on finding out some people were still offering mobile hairdressing services he wryly quipped “We just have to have ugly hair for the next few weeks. We have to live with it.”
Of course I know the UK also does daily press conferences which I also watch, but I really have zero desire to sit and watch Michael Gove sweating through another press briefing.
- Healthcare is just *incredibly* efficient here. When I was coughing so much I was being sick on Sunday, and John had to call the Icelandic ‘111’, they asked for my Kennitala – my unique social security number here. By pulling this up they could also pull up my address, date of birth….there was no faffing with loudly having to try and give our address to the nice doctor being sent in the (kind of alarming but obviously necessary) HazMat suit.
I had the swab done and he was extremely apologetic being like “I’m really sorry, we usually like to get results back within 24 hours but because it’s the weekend I’m still trying to get some results processed from Friday so it might not be possible.”
Dude. You’re not only speaking to me in flawless English (I was too far gone to even attempt basic Icelandic at this point) but you’re apologising that I might have to wait just 24 hours for a service I couldn’t even access if I were still in the UK?! And then after all that it took him just 8 hours to get my test result processed. He called at 8.30pm cos apparently that’s a thing here. It all just…works.
We are so very very far from being out of the woods here. Cases *are* still increasing. We went from having no-one in intensive care to 11 people, and 2 people have sadly died.
And of course I feel guilt – that my friends and family seem to be in such a bad place right now. That the UK government are being awful, and that there is such scant testing and scary food shortages. Waiting it out here is both a blessing and a curse when I agonise about how much more useful I could be in the UK versus how much safer I am here.
Góðan daginn ísland 