Marshall Islands record their first case of coronavirus, in 2 quarantining U.S. military members
Two people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the remote Marshall Islands, a small Pacific nation that had been one of the few countries in the world without any cases.
In proof that containment, diligent monitoring and testing are effective, the positive tests were of two U.S. military personnel who had just flown in from Hawaii and were still under quarantine, so they have never been in circulation since arriving.
The two asymptomatic people, a 35-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man, had tested negative before boarding their military flight from Hawaii to the Kwajalein Atoll, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The woman had had COVID-19 in late July, and her positive test might have been due to that, Marshalls officials said, according to AFP. The man had never been infected.
Because they had never left the base after arriving, there was no need for adjustment in the population at large, government officials said.
“As the case was identified at the border, and has been subject to strict quarantine and safety measures, there is no immediate risk of the virus spreading in the community,” Chief Secretary Kino Kabua said in a statement. “This is why in response to the recent cases there will be no national lockdown measures, and businesses and government operations will continue as normal until further notice.”
The Marshall Islands' borders have been closed since March for the express purpose of fending off the virus, BBC News noted. The Marshalls are a group of islands and atolls about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, according to AFP.
In June, the Marshalls had begun easing those restrictions in order to let in people such as U.S. military base employees, on the condition that they quarantine for three weeks at the Kwajalein garrison, AFP said.
Remaining virus-free holdouts are the small, remote island nations and territories of Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, The Guardian reported.
