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The abandoned ship “Perola do Corvo” (the pearl of Corvo) is shown ashore on the island of Corvo in the Azores on March 10, 2021. With occasional shortages of gasoline and fruit, Corvo is no stranger to the dangers of isolation, But its remoteness has had an important advantage: the smallest island in the Azores archipelago off the Portuguese coast has been spared the pandemic that is hitting the rest of the world. Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP
AZORES, Portugal – Battered by the North Atlantic climate and sometimes deprived of vital supplies, the small Portuguese island of Corvo has a crucial advantage in the fight against the pandemic: its remoteness.
Lying hundreds of kilometers from continental Europe, the smallest island in the Azores, dominated by a volcanic crater and dotted with lakes, appears to have escaped unscathed.
By Saturday, nearly its entire population of 400 had been vaccinated, and its only doctor rejoiced when people lined up at a sports complex to receive their second dose of Pfizer.
“We are already living a life very close to normality,” smiled Antonio Salgado, crossing names off his list. “And now it will be even more so!”
The 62-year-old doctor arrived in Corvo less than a year ago, but is already used to the occasional shortage of fruit and fuel, and has learned how to make homemade yogurt.
“This makes up for all the difficulties we experience on a daily basis,” he said.
‘An immunized territory’
Portugal decided to fully vaccinate the island without going through priority groups.
Local health official Clelio Meneses explained that the number of hits needed to immunize Corvo would not affect launches in other parts of the Azores.
“The only thing responsible was to vaccinate the entire population at once to create an immunized territory,” he said.
With only one ventilator on the island and no hospital beds, an outbreak in Corvo could have been devastating.
“We were very afraid that someone would come and contaminate us all, like from a boat,” said Goreti Melo, one of the two nurses on the island.
“The spread would have been disastrous and very fast,” said Mayor José Manuel Silva, who recalled that some of his constituents wanted the island closed.
“We only have one bakery, so inevitably we all go to the same places.”
‘A capsule’
Mainland Portugal has fought one of the most persistent outbreaks in the world, imposing strict containment measures, as more than 16,000 people have died from more than 800,000 infections.
But in Corvo there has only been one case of Covid: a local who ventured to the mainland for the Christmas holidays.
People on the 17-square-kilometer island can meet in cafes and restaurants to compare the side effects of the vaccine in person.
However, the island has few sources of income: a small fleet of fishing boats and a herd of approximately 1,000 head of cattle account for its agricultural economy.
Tourism provides a livelihood for some, but the pandemic has wiped out that income stream and has left the island especially dependent on foreign aid.
Local teacher Elisabete Barradas, who says she feels “very privileged” after receiving her second dose of vaccine, explained that the island had felt like “a capsule” for much of the pandemic.
But he said residents were now watching the rest of the world unfold “with great concern.”
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