Updated due to copy and paste issue
A video showing a crowd of 10,000 fans celebrating in Iceland was filmed in 2016, three and a half years before the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. In early March 2021, social media users falsely claimed that the old footage of a celebration for Iceland’s national football team showed that the country was ‘open again’ without any restrictions despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
An article sharing this video with the caption “ICELAND IS BACK 100% WITH NO TOURIST RESTRICTIONS” is available here. Another post making this claim is seen here.
SOURCE OF THE VOTE LANGUAGE
The footage in question, which was filmed on 4 July 2016 and published here by Libé Zap, a channel run by the French newspaper Libération, is entitled ‘Clapping géant pour les joueurs islandais à Reykjavik’, which is translated into ‘ Huge applause for Icelandic players in Reykjavik. ”
According to the caption, when the Icelandic team returned home after being eliminated in the Euro Cup, they were welcomed as heroes. Prior to the team’s arrival in the capital, fans choreographed a performance for them, complete with ‘XXL clapping’.
The YouTube channel “Football Life” also uploaded the footage in 2016 here.
As Reuters reported on July 3, 2016, France emphatically swept the Euro 2016 semi-finals and crushingly stopped Iceland’s fairytale run when Olivier Giroud twice won 5-2 (here).
COVID-19 IN ICELAND
Since the pandemic began, according to Reuters research (here) 6,279 infections and 29 deaths related to coronavirus have been reported. With six infections per 100,000 people reported in the past week, the country reports an average of three new infections every day, 4% of the peak – the highest daily average was reported on 10 October 2020.
On 17 March 2021, Iceland announced that it would open its borders to all visitors vaccinated against COVID-19 without mandatory tests or quarantine, as it wants to attract more tourists to revive the coronavirus economy (here).
Iceland has so far allowed vaccinated visitors from European Union countries to enter without restrictions, but from March 18, this exemption will apply to citizens outside the Schengen area, including Britain and the United States, he said.
Visitors must provide proof of vaccination with a vaccine certified by the European Medicines Agency, which excludes Chinese and Russian vaccines.
VERDICT
Untrue. This footage shows fans celebrating the homecoming of Iceland’s soccer team after losing to France in the 2016 Euro Cup.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.