Marshall Islands: Covid-19 cases surge

Covid-19 infection numbers possess surged in the Marshall Islands, just times after the Pacific country recorded its 1st local spread of the virus.

Within the capital city of Majuro, total cases have got nearly doubled considering that Friday.

These latest figures suggest one in 10 of the city’s residents have been infected in recent days.

Upon Sunday, Health Admin Jack Niedenthal mentioned about 75% associated with tests across the country had been returning positive results.

Several Pacific islands experienced success with keeping coronavirus at bay early in the pandemic through stringent restrictions.

The Marshall Islands, which has a population associated with 59, 000, has been one of the last nations in the world to be unblemished by Covid-19, just before two cases were identified in October 2020. The set had arrived from your US and were isolated from other people.

As recently as one week ago, it had seen simply no community transmission of the virus – which means that Covid had not been discovered passing from person to person.

Yet on Monday, the very first local spread was confirmed. The government replied by declaring a “state of wellness disaster”, closing universities and introducing a range of public health measures.

The explosion in cases has seen the particular Marshall Islands change from a “prevention to mitigation” strategy, Mr Niedenthal wrote in a Facebook update.

“The days of quarantine on arrival are now more than, ” he stated.

No lockdown has been ordered, yet Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reports that many people have chosen to work, with church services cancelled and restaurants appearing quiet.

Given that October 2020, 2 deaths have been documented across the Marshall Islands, and a cumulative overall of 3, 036 cases have been logged.

However , only nine hospitalisations had been recorded at the time of Mr Niedenthal’s Facebook update on Monday – with figures showing that 70% of Marshallese had been fully vaccinated.

Mr Niedenthal, who posted previously in the week which he too had tested positive, urged anybody severely unwell to report their situation as an emergency on the hospital.

He advised people to avoid exclusive “alternative care sites” which had been setup to deal with minor Covid symptoms.

“Much from the chaos is beginning to die down” he said, promising that “this will continue to keep get better. ”

Additional help would turn up from overseas including from the US, he added, with additional “boots on the ground” expected over the coming week.