From now on, new restrictions will apply at the borders. The visitors will be directed to quarantine hotels.
The latest draft law on amendments to the law on epidemic prevention and the law on foreigners, which regulates quarantine facilities and border crossing, was approved by parliament at 5am.
The bill was presented by the Minister of Health Svandís Svavarsdóttir and it was adopted with 28 votes in favor, 2 against and 22 MPs abstained.
One of the voters against the bill was an MP from the Independence Party, Sigríður Á. Anderssen. The Act requires people from certain areas (based on the spread of Covid-19) to go to quarantine hotels upon arrival in the country. It also authorizes the restriction of people from the same areas to travel to Iceland, except for urgent missions.
The first discussion on the project ended at 7.00 p.m. and the matter was referred to the Social Welfare Committee. Another discussion started after 2.30am last night, but the meeting was postponed many times. There were many comments on the bill in parliament yesterday.
The third debate on the bill, as well as the vote, ended yesterday around 4:30 am.
The regulation was created on the basis of an epidemiologist’s proposal
It is worth noting that the proposed amendment to the bill proposed by the Social Welfare Committee was accepted. The draft amendment contained several changes to its wording, and it is also expected that the Minister will define high-risk areas in the regulation after receiving an application from an epidemiologist.
“In the definition, for example, it may include assumptions about the presence of infection in a given area and the spread of various variants of the coronavirus. A country can be defined as a high risk area even if only a small part of it meets the above conditions set out in the regulation. The Minister will publish a list of areas and countries which are considered particularly high risk areas, with an announcement in section B of the Official Journal. The list will be verified at least every two weeks ” says a proposed amendment that was accepted. Apart from the committee, the proposal was supported by MPs Ólafur Þór Gunnarsson and Steinun Þóra Árnadóttir from the Green Left Party, Halla Signý Kristjánsdóttir from the Progress Party and Vilhjálmur Árnason from the Independence Party.
Only valid until the end of June
With a new amendment to the law on epidemiological control, a temporary provision is introduced that authorizes the Minister of Health to issue a regulation imposing on passengers arriving in the country the obligation to undergo quarantine or isolation in an epidemiological center designated for this purpose. The obligation may apply to tourists who have stayed in high-risk areas or in areas for which adequate information is not available.
Moreover, the amendments to the Act on foreigners were taken into account by introducing a temporary provision which provides for the temporary authorization of the Minister of Justice to issue a regulation in which foreigners coming from high-risk areas, for which there is insufficient information, will not be able to enter the country despite meeting the general in the field of entry specified in the Act and the Regulation on cross-border travel.
In both cases, these are transitional provisions that apply from today until the end of June next year.
mmn / visir.is
Source: Yle