Iceland has been hit hard by Covid-19 over recent weeks, and fishing and processing company Samherji was taking no chances – starting 2022 by screening the entire workforce ashore and crews of trawlers about to sail for the first trips of the year.
The roughly two hundred staff of the processing plants in Akureyri and Dalvík were all tested for Covid at the beginning of the week, as production started up after the New Year break, as were the crews of eight fishing vessels heading for sea to start their first trips of 2022.
According to Samherji CEO Thorsteinn Már Baldvinsson, the decision to do this was taken because many staff were returning from spending Christmas and the New Year in other parts of the country or overseas, and taking onto account the speed with which the latest Covid variants spread, it was important to take no chances.
‘We can’t allow production to stop, so the decision was screen everyone as production began. Screening went well and fortunately all the results were negative,’ he said.
‘Considering the spread of infection through the community, it’s clear that our people have taken care and on the alert.’
Iceland has experienced high rates of infection in recent weeks, with close to 800 cases identified on some days this week, and there are thousands of people in Iceland in isolation.
‘This latest wave of the pandemic is still growing and we have to take every precaution. The experts predict that Covid infection rates will remain high so we have no option but to be as cautious as possible. I had expected that we could have seen a few positive results, but our staff have clearly followed the advice of the health authorities, which gives us a reason to be optimistic as the New Year gets going,’ he said.
