The Chief Epidemiologist’s respiratory infection dashboard has been updated with data through week 49 (December 2–8, 2024).

Following the announcement by the Chief Epidemiologist on January 8 regarding a case of measles diagnosed in a child in the country on January 6, the Chief Epidemiologist wishes to inform that no new cases have been identified since then.

The Chief Epidemiologist is monitoring the Ebola outbreak caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, through the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The World Health Organization (WHO), together with others, in cooperation with numerous countries, is currently investigating a cluster of hantavirus infections linked to the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius. The incident is serious, and deaths have occurred, but the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) consider the risk to the general public to be low.

The annual influenza epidemic is still ongoing. The number of confirmed cases has been decreasing recently and appears to have reached its peak.

The initiative study by the Quality and Supervisory Authority of Welfare (GEV) on driving services for disabled people and older people at national level revealed that a significant number of private parties that provide driving services did not have the necessary permits to operate the service. Municipalities have now been encouraged to make appropriate improvements to ensure that the parties concerned have the necessary permit to operate the service and some of them have already responded.

The qualitative study of the service of the housing unit in Hólmasund 2 in Reykjavík showed that the change of managers and the changes in the staff had a big impact on the quality of the service to the residents. The integration of new employees, education to the staff and consultation with the personal spokespersons of the residents was also lacking in many ways.

The Gæða- og Eftirlitsstofnun velferðarmála (GEV) held workshop II on the development of quality criteria in social services in Iceland. It was a real honor and honor for a number of participants to participate in this important project.

By the end of May 2025, Meta will start training for artificial intelligence, using Facebook and Instagram users’ entries, photos and comments in Europe. This will cover all content that is publicly available on these platforms – both new content and existing content. Users who wish to prevent their data from being used will need to object the processing as soon as possible.

Data Protection Authority has completed an initial review of the processing of personal data in connection with electronic monitoring in swimming pools operated by Akraneskaupstaður, Akureyri, Árborg and Mosfellsbær.