app to trace infections was developed and released on the first of april; after passing review by google and apple, the app was downloaded almost 75,000 times by 3 april 2020. two more deaths occurred due to the virus on 5 april, taking the total tally of deaths to six. one of the deceased was 67-year-old sigurður sverrisson, a renowned icelandic bridge player; the other was gunnsteinn svavar sigurðsson, a male resident of a nursing home in bolungarvík in the westfjords aged 82. on 5 april iceland also recorded the highest number of active cases during the outbreak, at 1,096; since then, recoveries per day have outnumbered new cases. on 8 april 2020, as the cases surged over 1,600 and more recoveries than new infections were recorded for the second day in a row, iceland's head epidemiologist announced that it was highly likely that the country had reached the peak of its outbreak. another two individuals died due to the virus by 11 april, taking the total deaths in the country to 8. a ninth patient, in their sixties, died at landspítali hospital on 16 april; a tenth, a woman in her eighties, died at berg nursing home in bolungarvík in the westfjords on 19 april. september 2020 a sharp rise in the number of infections in mid to late september was traced to two restaurants in reykjavík, irishman and brewdog, and ultimately to two french tourists who tested positive in mid-august but did not follow all rules of quarantine. october 2020 on 16 october, iceland recorded its eleventh death, its first death since april and first death in the second wave. iceland announced its twelfth and thirteenth deaths on 28 and 29 october; in the previous week, a spike in the number of cases of those aged over 80 had been recorded. on 31 october, iceland recorded its lowest number of cases outside quarantine since september. however, hospitalizations rose to 67 and two more deaths were recorded. november 2020 – august 2021 iceland recorded its sixteenth death on 1 november, its seventeenth on 2 november, its eighteenth on 4 november, and its nineteenth and twentieth on 7 november. a further three deaths occurred on 8 november, and another – the 24th overall – on 9 november. the 25th death occurred on 11 november in sólvellir care home in eyrarbakki; the 26th death occurred on 17 november. on 22 november, there were no new cases outside quarantine. the 27th death occurred on 30 november, the 28th on 7 december, and the 29th on 28 december. the first covid-19 related death in iceland in 2021 and the thirtieth overall occurred on 22 may 2021 when a patient at landspítali died from the illness after a month. two more deaths, both of them foreign travellers, occurred at landspítali on 25 august 2021 and 26 august 2021. the thirty-third death overall, the third in the fourth wave, occurred at landspítali on 28 august 2021. september–december 2021 a patient being treated for covid-19 died at landspítali on 31 october 2021; it was initially unclear whether covid-19 was also the cause of death, but on 2 november 2021 the decision was made to count the death as covid-19-related. a male patient in his 70s died at landspítali on or before 25 november 2021. on 1 december 2021, iceland reported its first case of the sars-cov-2 omicron variant. a thirty-sixth death occurred on 10 december 2021 when a patient at landspítali died from covid-19, and a thirty-seventh on 18 december 2021. on 21 december 2021, health minister willum þór þórsson introduced new infection prevention restrictions, with a gathering limit of 20 persons, in response to growing omicron cases. the 38th covid-19-related death occurred on 31 december 2021 when a woman in her eighties died at landspítali. january–march 2022 the 39th covid-19-related death occurred on 4 january 2022; an unvaccinated man in his sixties died at landspítali. on 4 january 2022, the following were the official government numbers on covid-19: there were 9,125 active cases, with 30 hospitalized, and 8 in the icu, six of whom were unvaccinated. 77% of the population was considered "fully vaccinated," with 160,357 booster shots administered, or to 43.4% of the population. around 90% of new cases reported daily were the omicron variant, with around 100 people also still testing positive for the delta variant daily. two more deaths–the 40th and 41st overall–occurred on 8 january 2022 when two men, both in their 80s, died at landspítali, followed soon by the 42nd death on 10 january 2022 when a woman in her 80s died at landspítali. the 43rd death occurred on 12 january when a man in his 90s died at landspítali. prevention measures hand sanitizer at keflavík international airport throughout the pandemic, the directorate of health and the department of civil protection and emergency management have maintained an official website with the latest information in icelandic and english. 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 european free trade association countries into the area but has not made other formal restrictions against international or domestic travel. on 24 january 2020, the directorate of health announced preventive measures to curb the spread of sars-cov-2. passengers arriving at the keflavík international airport with signs of respiratory infection and asymptomatic individuals who had been either in wuhan for the past 14 days were medically assessed at the airport. from 2 march 2020, healthcare workers in iceland were being encouraged to avoid travel and to remain in the country. as of 16 march 2020, no official social distancing measures or limitations or bans on public gatherings are in effect. however, organisers cancelled or postponed a number of upcoming events, including the annual conference of the school of humanities of the university of iceland, hugvísindaþing, which was set to have taken place on 13 and 14 march 2020. at a press conference on 13 march 2020, it was announced that public gatherings of more than 100 would be banned and universities and secondaries schools closed for four weeks. later that day, announcements were made that stated or emphasised that: panic-buying was unnecessary; no shortage of food or medicine was foreseen; elementary schools and preschools would not be closed, although restrictions would be in place to maximize social distancing within schools; and that all schools in the reykjavík area would close on 16 march in order to prepare. on 16 march 2020, the supermarket chain samkaup announced that 27 grocery shops throughout iceland would have special shopping times for vulnerable members of the public, including the elderly and those with chronic and underlying illnesses. beginning 17 march, select nettó and kjörbúðin locations would reserve the hour from 9 to 10 a.m. for those shoppers at greatest risk of severe complications should they contract covid-19. as of 18 march 2020, the whole world is defined as a high risk area. all travel abroad is discouraged and residents in iceland who are currently abroad are encouraged to return home as soon as possible. residents in iceland who arrive from abroad will now go into quarantine. on 21 march 2020, a stricter ban on public assemblies was put in place in vestmannaeyjar. assemblies there with more than 10 persons would now be prohibited. a still stricter ban was announced for the húnaþing vestra district, where all inhabitants have been ordered to stay at home except to buy necessities. from 00:00 on 24 march 2020, a nation-wide ban on public assemblies over 20 took effect. all swimming pools, museums, libraries and bars closed, as did any businesses requiring a proximity of less than 2 m (hairdressers, tattoo artists, etc.). on 5 october 2020, closure of bars, gyms, and entertainment venues, as well as a limiting of maximum gathering size from 200 to 20, was ordered, due to a rise in cases. on 24 march 2021, closure of schools, swimming pools and gyms, as well as reducing gathering sizes from 50 to 10, was ordered. testing and quarantine icelandic health officials have used voluntary home-based quarantines for all residents returning from defined high-risk areas and virus testing as the primary means of preventing transmission within the community. icelandic health officials have tested a proportionately high number of arriving passengers from high-risk areas for covid-19, with the hope that early detection of infections will prevent their spread. an early concern among icelandic residents placed in home-based quarantine has been employees' rights to paid leave while being quarantined; it was announced on 5 march 2020 that the covid-19 outbreak will likely result in changes to legislation within the next weeks. those with symptoms of covid-19 were asked to avoid health care centres and hospitals unless they called ahead, to avoid exposing vulnerable individuals to the virus. official quarantine facilities for healthy individuals unable to enter a home-based quarantine (for example, foreign nationals) have been established at a local hotel in reykjavík. initially, covid-19 testing for icelandic residents in quarantine took place mainly in their own homes. due to the high volume of tests required, the decision was made to use mobile units parked outside health clinics; individuals not experiencing severe symptoms who require testing must contact authorities to book a time and location. a shortage of tests has reduced the volume of covid-19 testing in iceland, hampering control and tracing efforts. it was announced on 22 march that an order of 5,000 swabs set to arrive the following week had been reduced at short notice by 3,000. the unexpected discovery of an additional 6,000 swabs in a warehouse was announced on 26 march 2020. as of 15 january 2021, all foreigners visiting iceland are required to take a covid-19 test upon arrival, quarantine for 5 or 6 days, and then take another test at the end of the quarantine period. this policy is scheduled to remain in place until 1 may 2021. vaccination as of july 2021, more than 260,000 individuals had received at least one dose of covid-19 vaccine, which was over 78% of the country's population. the vaccines approved for use in iceland are pfizer, moderna, astrazeneca, janssen. iceland has also signed a contract with curevac. on 21 november 2021, it was reported that 90% of the icelandic population had been fully vaccinated, while around 1 in 5 people had received a booster on top of that. herd immunity plan