The Icelandic authorities denied on Friday that they held two French tourists responsible for the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in the country, contrary to what several media claim.
To hold these two French tourists responsible, who tested positive when they disembarked from their plane in Iceland in mid-August, is "
unfair and unfounded
", Kari Stefánsson, CEO of DeCODE Genetics, who lends a hand to the Icelandic health authorities in the massive tests orchestrated on the island since mid-March.
Read also: Covid-19: are we really three or four times more likely to be infected in bars?
Contacted by AFP, the Icelandic police noted that if "
the sanitary measures were not followed to the maximum
" by the two young people, "
there was no violation of the rules of isolation
" and "
he there is no reason to impose a fine
”on the two French people.
On August 15, when they arrived in Iceland, they chose to be tested for Covid-19 at Keflavik international airport to escape two weeks of quarantine, but were then tested positive and required for self-isolation.
Systematic sequencing of each case
Iceland carrying out systematic sequencing of each positive case of coronavirus to determine its strain, it was found several weeks later that the same gene present in most of the new cases had been detected a month earlier on the two French people, immediately suspected of having violated the rules of their quarantine.
Read also: Covid-19: 15% of serious forms explained by genetic and immune abnormalities
But "
the hypothesis according to which French tourists have violated the quarantine is not based on any proof
", underlines Kari Stefansson.
“
It is also possible, if not more likely, that there were other people on this plane who were infected and were early enough in the infection that they were not detected at the border.
So blaming these two French tourists is unfair and unfounded, and I will not participate
, ”he continued.
Since September 15, Iceland has faced a new upsurge in Covid-19 cases, the vast majority of which are in the region of the capital Reykjavík.
According to health authorities, nearly half of these infections are directly or indirectly linked to two bars in the city center, where the so-called “
French
”
strain
has been detected.
