Embætti landlæknis
Obligation to stay in quarantine or isolation in an official quarantine facility upon arrival to the country
21. apríl 2021
On April 20th, the government announced tougher border measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 20th, the government announced tougher border measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Minister of Health subsequently submitted a bill to be discussed in parliament. Included is a possible authorization to oblige travellers who travel from or have stayed in certain very high-risk areas to stay in an official quarantine facility during quarantine or isolation. This would apply equally to citizens and residents of Iceland as well as others.
If countries are divided into more than one area where the incidence of infection is different, the whole country is classified according to the area where the incidence is highest. If adequate information on the incidence of infection is not available for a country, it could be considered very high-risk. The list will be updated based on information from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) every two weeks, but earlier if necessary.
The Chief Epidemiologist may grant an exemption from the obligation to stay in a quarantine facility if the traveller demonstrates that his/her own premises will fulfil all the conditions of appropriate housing in quarantine. An application for an exemption must be received by the Chief Epidemiologist no later than two days before arrival in the country. If the frequency of infection exceeds certain limits, an exemption from a stay in a quarantine house will not be granted. This process will be announced in more detail later when the government Regulation is available.
As before, a tourist who comes from a country with a lower infection rate than is considered very high-risk may be requested to stay in a quarantine house or be obliged to stay there if he does not have adequate accommodation.
The following is a table of countries, as an example, where the reported infection rate is over 750 new cases per 100,000 population over 14-days according to data from the European Epidemiological Surveillance Authority from 15 April (week 14).
Country
Incidence >1000*
Country
Incidence
750-1000*
Bermuda
1246
Andorra
960
Curaçao
2203
Bahrain
889
France
1285
Croatia
846
Hungary
1078
Cyprus
774
Netherlands
1035
Estonia
770
Poland
1429
Italy
784
San Marino
1759
Lithuania
840
Uruguay
1370
Jordan
819
Serbia
819
Sweden
771
Turkey
771
* Incidence of COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants over 14-days based on the area in a country where the incidence is highest.
Please note that the list may change in accordance with the government´s decision and pending Regulation, and this list does not include countries where information might be incomplete.
Data: