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Solomon Islands, formerly one of the few countries that had remained Covid-free during this global pandemic, have reported his first case.
Dorothy Wickham Honiara reports:
The Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, just confirmed in a nationally televised speech that a Solomon Islands student repatriated from the Philippines late last month tested positive for Covid-19.
“It pains me to say that we have lost our Covid-19 free status, despite our collective efforts to prevent the pandemic from entering our country.”
The student is in quarantine but asymptomatic. He had been tested before leaving Manila, which came back negative, but later tested positive in Honiara.
Sogavare said contact tracing and testing of medical staff caring for students is now underway. All students who returned on the repatriation flight are undergoing a mandatory 14-day quarantine. The infected student, as well as two other suspected cases, were transferred to hospital isolation facilities.
Sogavare reaffirmed that there are currently no confirmed cases of community transmission and assured the Solomon Islanders that there are no plans for any closure at this stage.
“My fellow citizens, although we have been working to prevent the virus from reaching our shores, it is now with us. However … we are ready to identify it … isolate it … contain it … and eliminate it. “
Sogavare announced that all repatriation flights for citizens of the Solomon Islands have been suspended until further notice.
The Pacific islands have largely escaped the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a very low number of cases, but it is feared that if the virus takes hold, it could spread rapidly between populations living together They have high rates of comorbidities and poor and fragile public health systems.
While the virus has largely been kept in check so far, Pacific economies, particularly those that depend on tourism, have been devastated by the pandemic. The economy of Fiji, one of the largest Melanesian countries, is expected to decline more than 20% this year.
