The restrictions on international travel meant that Iceland’s largest industry-tourism-came to a standstill almost immediately.
Stricter restrictions were implemented including a 14-day quarantine for foreign visitors (Directorate of Health, 2022). Despite these measures, the virus spread quickly and suddenly a worrisome trend emerged since Iceland was experiencing one of the highest infection rates in Europe. On March 15, 2020, gatherings were limited to a maximum of 100 people and international travel was discouraged. Thorolfur Gudnason explained the overall approach, “We decided from the beginning we would use isolation, quarantine and contact tracing” (Scudellari, 2020). As such, three governmental individuals became important public figures: Thorolfur Gudnason, Chief Epidemiologist Alma Moller, Director of Health and Vidir Reynisson, Chief of Civil Protection and Emergency Management. It´s my firm belief that we need to listen more to the experts” (Mackenzie, 2021). The paper does so by applying indicators proposed in the introduction to this symposium (Gherghina, et al 2022).Īs COVID-19 began spreading in March 2020, politicians allowed scientists and medical experts to take the lead as Iceland’s Prime Minister stated: “I think it´s important for a politician to realize what is politics and what needs to be solved by scientific means. Finally, the paper considers the societal impact of the Government of Iceland and deCODE’s actions in combatting COVID-19 and being one of the first countries to open its borders to foreign travellers. Furthermore, the article explores how Iceland and deCODE’s resources assisted in the country’s preparedness, agility, and robustness in confronting the virus. This article looks at and argues for how a public–private partnership between a government and a private company helped to develop a novel approach to screening, testing, and sequencing a virus to avoid a collapse in a healthcare system and permit a country to drop COVID-19 restrictions. This is our contribution to the battle” (Kelly, 2020). As deCODE’s founder and CEO, Kari Stefansson, said, “We just came to help the system this was all hands-on deck moment. On March 13, 2020, deCODE repurposed their genetics laboratory and took over most of the screening and testing from Iceland’s University Hospital.
Established in 1996 and later acquired by the USA biopharmaceutical company Amgen in 2012, deCODE had become well-known around the world for creating one of the first major human genetics databases for the purpose of studying the identification and prevention of diseases. Kari Stefansson, the founder and CEO, was however known for his generosity but he, on behalf of deCODE had given the University Hospital the first Position Emission Tomography (PET/CT) in 2018 worth 800 million (Decode Genetics, 2017). It was, as well, the only company with the knowledge and equipment to step in and provide aid of this sort. This was done without any request from the Government and was estimated to cost the company 1,2 billion Icelandic Kronur (ISK) a month (Jonasson, 2020a).
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The private company, deCODE Genetics, offered its services for free to the Government of Iceland to screen, test and further gain an understanding of the virus. Additionally, the country had focused on the development of the tourism sector from 2010 to 2020, seen by many to be one of the key factors in reviving the economy. A decade later in 2020, Iceland had established more robust governance mechanisms in both public and private sectors. The country’s institutions had all been on a long road of rebuilding trust after the financial crisis of 2008–2010, which had caused a collapse of the banking system, currency, and economy, resulting in a period of political turmoil.
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The Government of Iceland and local authorities set about protecting the nation's health system through a series of actions. Several countries around the world had already closed their borders to stop the transmission of the disease (Directorate of Health, 2021a). On March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, the virus was in the early stages of spreading in Iceland.
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