Island nation is among the few free of COVID-19
As coronavirus cases climb in many U.S. states, some Pacific Island nations have safely ridden out the storm.
The Marshall Islands is still COVID-19-free.
“We saw the threat and took action early,” said Jack Niedenthal, secretary of health for the mid-Pacific island nation, describing its March 3 travel ban, which prevented incoming travelers from across the globe. The islands’ government had banned travelers from China several weeks earlier.
The safe status of the Marshall Islands contrasts with what immigrants from there are experiencing in the U.S. They have been disproportionately infected with the coronavirus in cities such as Spokane, Wash., and Springdale, Ark., in part because many of them serve as essential workers.
In the South Pacific and the Central Pacific, many islands nations, including New Zealand, have so far staved off the worst of COVID-19 by closing their borders early and taking other public health measures.
Across the globe, only six other countries are reportedly COVID-19 free. With the exception of North Korea, all of them — Kiribati, Palau, American Samoa, Nauru and Micronesia — are Pacific
Island nations that closed their borders to outside travelers.
As of Wednesday, there are nearly 3.5 million coronavirus cases in the U.S. more than in any other country.
The Marshall Islands’ travel ban is still in place — and currently extended through Aug. 5 — while the government builds the infrastructure and stockpiles the equipment it will need should the virus invade.
According to Casten Nemra, the minister for foreign affairs and trade, construction on a new COVID-19 medical isolation center on Majuro — the nation’s capital and most populated island — is almost complete.
“Then we can begin bringing back our citizens who have been stranded,” he said, noting the nearly 500 traveling abroad when the travel ban was announced — including Niedenthal’s wife, daughter and grandson, who were visiting family in Portland.
When the pandemic spread out of China and Europe this year, the Marshall Islands had already been restricting domestic travel because of a dengue fever outbreak. So the decision to close down early was easy.
“People thought we were out of our minds,” said Niedenthal, who leads the nation’s health care response. “They said travel bans don’t work.”
But for island nations, he said, they do.
Now the nation is considering restricting outbound travel, too.
Niedenthal said the country is watching “the mass chaos in the U.S.,” where government officials “have lost control over the disease and don’t seem to be doing anything on the federal level to protect its own citizens.”
“Given how hard our own citizens have been hammered by this disease in the U.S., it just scares the hell out of us,” he said, noting that a decision is likely to be made by next Thursday, when the next commercial airline flight is scheduled to depart.
The island nation is also restricting seaports, where the bulk of the nation’s commodities are imported.
Fishing vessels are required to spend 14 days on the water from their last port of departure before arriving in the Marshall Islands. Cargo ships bringing essentials, such as food and medical supplies, are exempted from the quarantine. But they must provide health data on crew members for the 21-day period before arrival.
In addition, according to Nemra and Niedenthal, the cargo crew stays below deck and does not interact with the Marshall Islandsbased ground crew while unloading.
“It’s probably the safest place in the world to be right now,” said U.S. Ambassador Roxane Cabral, who was appointed in December and hasn’t left the islands since.