Vanuatu Officially Records First-Ever COVID-19 Case

Health officials of the Oceanian nation of Vanuatu have finally recorded its first case of COVID-19.

The report which was disclosed in a statement issued on Wednesday has finally ended the nation’s status as one of the few countries in the world to remain free of the virus.

Director of Vanuatu Public Health, Len Tarivonda revealed that a 23-year-old man who had recently returned from the United States was confirmed to have the virus on Tuesday after being tested on the fifth day of his quarantine.

The country's health department in the statement said: “A case detected in quarantine is considered a border case and not an outbreak,” the department said in a statement, adding that health protocols were in place to contain the virus.

The statement also added that the asymptomatic man was isolated from other passengers during his flight to Vanuatu because he had been in a high-risk location. Before his arrival, he was reported to have had transited in Auckland, New Zealand.

It further revealed that the patient had adhered to all social-distancing rules on arrival and that contract-tracing of all the people who had been near to him was underway.

According to Radio New Zealand, Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman at a press conference stated: "I want to assure all citizens and the public that the situation is under control and the government through the COVID-19 task force is prepared and ready to address this case.”

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The remote island country of around 300,000 people had back in March closed its borders in an effort to keep the pandemic at bay, only recently allowing in strictly controlled repatriation flights.

The news has made other Pacific island nations land in fear following concerns about their poor health infrastructure which will make them particularly vulnerable to the pandemic if there is an outbreak.

Other remote island nations and territories reported to still be free of the virus are Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu.

The Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands had last month recorded confirmed cases among returnees, although there have not been reports of community transmission.

Data from Johns Hopkins University reveals that more than 51.3 million people around the world have been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus, with the US the worst-affected country. The data also reveals that the virus has claimed the lives of about 1.3 million people.