Iceland’s strategy to track the spread of the coronavirus can be used in the U.S., deCODE Genetics CEO Kári Stefánsson informed CNBC on Wednesday.
Stefánsson, whose Reykjavík-based business is known for its work analyzing the human genome, kept in mind the obvious size differences in between the U.S. and Iceland.
For beginners, the U.S. has about 330 million people while Iceland has almost 347,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
However Iceland’s ability to test around 10%of its population and release robust contact tracing when someone is diagnosed with Covid-19 must not be seen as something only little countries can do, Stefánsson argued in an interview with CNBC’s Meg Tirrell.
” It ought to be even easier in a nation of your size with your resources, with this incredible amount of talent you have,” Stefánsson said of the U.S. “If you were to bring this all to bare, you would quickly be able to do the same thing as we.”
Iceland has 1,727 validated cases of Covid-19 and 8 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
In the U.S., where about 3.2 million individuals have been checked for the illness, there are more than 634,000 verified cases of Covid-19, per JHU data. Nearly 28,000 have passed away.
Stefánsson, a neurologist who was formerly a professor at Harvard University, stated that in addition to an early commitment to widespread screening, Iceland’s government likewise deployed “an extraordinarily energetic” system of contact tracing.
This includes putting everybody who checked positive in seclusion and after that figuring out all the people who have actually touched with individuals who have the disease, he discussed. Those who came into contact with an infected individual are put in quarantine, he said.
” By doing this, we appeared to have actually brought this epidemic under some sort of control,” he argued.
Residential properties base on the city skyline in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Arnaldur Halldorsson
