[ad_1]
As Covid-19 raced around the world, governments and states frantically rushed to close borders and evaluate their populations, all with the goal of containing the disease that has so far killed more than 225,000 people.
But for a variety of reasons, whether it’s geography, dubious reports, or sheer luck, 34 countries and territories still don’t have a single case, he reports. Reuters
In the first category, remoteness has played an important role in the lack of cases in a number of islands in the Pacific and Africa.
iStock
Independence Arch Monument, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
The Cook Islands, Tokelau, and Niue join people like Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Solomon, and several other countries and territories, with no reported cases. Certainly, the difficulty of traveling to these islands, as well as rapid restrictions, halted the spread of the disease that would have overwhelmed the medical infrastructure of small nations.
READ MORE:
* Coronavirus: Last Covid-19 patient leaves hospital in Wuhan
* Coronavirus: How difficult, how early? The numbers behind New Zealand’s fast block
* Coronavirus: Pacific nations deepen restrictions as confirmed cases reach 50
The remote Comoros archipelago of the Indian Ocean has also reported zero cases. The country’s president enacted early restrictions, including the closure of all mosques in the Muslim-majority African state.
Again, geography and lack of travelers have helped the nation; The same is true of the remote land areas that are Santa Helena, Ascensión and Tristán de Acuña, as well as all of Antarctica.
A curious anomaly in Africa is Lesotho landlocked. Despite being surrounded by South Africa, which has seen more than 5,000 Covid-19 infections, the country has yet to record a single case. The mountain kingdom has been in crisis lately in a murder case involving Prime Minister Thomas Thabane. He and his wife are suspected of involvement in the murder of his previous wife.
In the category of “dubious reports” there are three common suspects: North Korea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The trio frequently tops the corruption charts and has some of the worst media freedoms in the world. However, Turkmenistan has gone a bit further, banning all face masks in public and removing any mention of Covid-19 in health, university and hospital brochures.
Reuters reported that five countries and territories have rid themselves of the virus after reporting cases: Anguilla, Greenland, the Caribbean islands of St. Barts and Saint Lucia, and Yemen.
