Iceland has done a first - class job of rolling out alarge - scale COVID-19 testing strategyacross its universe . Although it ’s is only a lowly nation , their approach is already providing some   bewitching   insights into the COVID-19 and the current pandemic .

Iceland health authorities , together with private biopharmaceutical company deCode Genetics , have so far administered 12,615 tests across the body politic , accounting for almost 3.5 percent of the total universe . For context , the UShas testedaround 540,252 hoi polloi , around 0.16 of the population .

Unlike most other countries , Iceland has been offering free screening among the universal universe even if they do n’t have any symptoms . This examination has identify up to 802 sustain COVID-19 transmission , at least 253 of which were hold by a alien traveller .

you may see all of the testing result on the wellness ministry’sCOVID-19 live data page .

What can we learn from this data ? Well , first matter ’s first : these are preliminary results , for the time being , so we ca n’t take them as gospel . Equally , every country has a unequaled substructure , acculturation , and social structure , so each nation ’s outbreak may not of necessity “ behave ” like Iceland ’s .

The most interesting revelation is that Iceland ’s data point suggests around half of the great unwashed who tested positive for COVID-19 in the country did not display any symptom .

“ other event from deCode genetic science indicate that a low proportion of the cosmopolitan universe has contracted the virus and that about half of those who test positive are non - symptomatic . The other half displays very moderate cold - like symptoms , ” Thorolfur Guðnason , Iceland ’s main epidemiologist , toldBuzzfeed News .

The work has also allowed researchers to interpret how the novel coronavirus SARS - CoV-2 has mutate within the country . In one singular billet , it even appears that one Icelandic someone was infected with two dissimilar variants ofSARS - CoV-2 with subtly   dissimilar hereditary cloth .

“ We have found 40 island - specific virus chromosomal mutation . We observe someone who had a miscellanea of viruses , " explains Kári Stefánsson , director of deCode Genetics speak to Danish newspaperInformation . " They had virus from before and after the mutation , and the only infection trackable to that person are the mutate computer virus . ”

While this number of mutations isslightly higherthan other estimates , it ’s nothing to interest about . accord toNathan Grubaugh , an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health , variation are a lifelike part of the virus lifecycle and “ we should n’t interest when a computer virus mutates during disease outbreaks . ” By and large , preliminary information intimate SARS - CoV-2 has a relativelystable genome .

Iceland ’s pocket-size population means it ’s in a   alone state of affairs to carry out this kind of testing scheme , but every country would be doing this in an ideal Earth .   The World Health Organization ( WHO ) has maintained thatall res publica need to start far-flung testingfor COVID-19 , even among people who do n’t have symptoms . If we do n’t have the information , they say , the pandemic can not be fight efficaciously .

“ you could not fight a ardour blindfold and we can not stop this pandemic if we do n’t know who is infected . We have a unsubdivided message for all countries ; examination , test , test , "   Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , director - general of the WHO , say on March 16 .