LABELLE, FL. -- The country of Iceland with a populations of 135,000 has managed to keep the death toll from the coronavirus to an amazing low nine people.
"The response to the pandemic by Icelandic health authorities has focused on early detection and contact tracing and social distancing measures such as a ban on assemblies of more than 20 persons. As a member of the Schengen area, Iceland is restricting unnecessary travel by persons who are not citizens of the EU, the United Kingdom or the EFTA countries into the area but has not made other formal restrictions against international or domestic travel," reports the Wikipedia article on the country's response to the pandemic.
Health authorities have tested about 1 in every 8 people in the country, compared the the U.S. testing of about 1 in 87 people. As a result of extensive testing in Iceland, 1,760 were tested positive, or about 1 in 208 Icelandic residents having COVID-19, but of those, only three were classified serious or critical, and 1,291 have recovered, and only nine died or 1 in 38,461 people.
This compares to the death rate in the U.S. at 1 death for every 8,547 cases.
So what to be learned is: early detection though testing and tracing all contacts, combined with social distancing and bans on assemblies of groups are probably the best methods to reduce deaths and most likely reduce greatly serious and critical illness in the general public.
No comments:
Post a Comment