Faroese mayor hospitalised with severe infection after Greek festival

The mayor of Runavík in the Faroe Islands, Tórbjørn Jacobsen, is being treated at the national hospital after developing a serious infection linked to a Greek food festival, Faroese broadcaster Kringvarp Føroya reports.

Jacobsen, known locally as Tobbi, was admitted to Landssjúkrahúsið (the Faroese National Hospital) on Sunday following complications from a Grækarismessurøða (Greek festival) event in the capital, Tórshavn. He described experiencing a week of intense pain in his right arm, which has since become paralysed.

“This started a week ago with a strange pain in my right arm, and now the arm is completely stiff,” Jacobsen told representatives from the political party Foytt Val, who visited him in hospital. “There’s a serious infection that has taken hold of the arm. I have severe pain in my right hand, which is now twice its normal size.”

Medical staff have attempted intravenous treatment, or landstreymi (a Faroese term for a drip), but after initial methods failed, doctors have moved to an alternative approach, described by party member Kári Sólstein as “Plan B.”

Jacobsen, a former member of the Faroese parliament (Løgtingið) for the Glyvrum district, remains in stable but serious condition.