COVID-19 pandemic in Kiribati
Infections from a COVID-19 pandemic in Kiribati are not yet known. The island state of Kiribati has a little more than 100,000 inhabitants and is one of the 15 states on earth in which there are no SARS-CoV-2 infected people (as of June 10, 2020).
background
The global COVID-19 pandemic started in China in December 2019 . The COVID-19 pandemic affects the novel disease COVID-19 . This is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the Coronaviridae group and belongs to the group of respiratory diseases . From March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the outbreak of the novel coronavirus as a global pandemic .
Location of the islands
The national territory of Kiribati has an east-west extension from Caroline Atoll to Banaba Island of 4,567 kilometers and a north-south extension from the island of Teraina to Flint Island of 2,051 kilometers. The total area is around 5.2 million square kilometers; of which only 811 square kilometers are island land. This makes Kiribati a small state . Of the 33 islands, 21 are inhabited. There is a central hospital on Kiribati, the Tungaru Central Hospital on Tarawa , and 20 health centers on the other islands.
activities
The government of Kiribati suspended all applications for entry from China on February 1, 2020 in order to ward off a COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 17, 2020, it was suspected that the captain of a Russian ship that came from Korea and was lying in the port of Tarawa had been infected with SARS-CoV-2, so people rushed to the nearby hospital to get masks . The school next to the hospital also closed and even the offices of the Kiribati headquarters in Bairiki were closed. The population panicked and was irritated that no test results were reported. Other schools and offices closed because they believed the virus had broken out at the Betio Clinic . The competent state authorities announced over the radio that no epidemic had broken out, but it remained strange for the population that no test results were announced. On March 30, 2020, the Ministry of Health finally announced via radio that the test result from Australia had shown that the captain, who had since died of natural causes, was not infected.
On March 28, 2020, President Taneti Maamau announced the state of emergency. This made Kiribati the last island nation in the Pacific to declare a COVID-19 emergency. The state of emergency came into force on March 31, 2020; since then, all schools in Kiribati have also been closed.
The Ministry of Health and Medical Services pointed out in the week before the declaration of emergency that the population should minimize their social contacts and keep a distance of two meters from other people and wash their hands for 20 seconds after completing activities.
Kiribati has an international airport on the island of Tarawa and another airport on the island of Kiritimati , which are served by foreign lines. The Ministry of Health therefore imposed a 14-day quarantine on all people entering from countries with SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Web links
- World Health Organization (WHO): Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation reports on the website www.who.int (English)
- Johns Hopkins CSSE : Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases. (English)
- Website World of Meters : real-time data of the Corona virus pandemic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kiribati . In: WHO, undated, accessed April 16, 2020
- ↑ Which countries have not reported any coronavirus cases? Al-Jazeera, June 10, 2020.
- ↑ Pulmonologists on the net: Covid-19: Causes . Online at www.lungenaerzte-im-netz.de. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
- ↑ Tagesschau: "Deeply worried". WHO speaks of corona pandemic . March 11, 2020. Online at www.tagesschau.de. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
- ^ Health systems in Kiribati . In: Commonwealth Health Online, undated, accessed April 16, 2020
- ↑ Coronavirus: Kiribati blocks Chinese travelers . In: RNZ from February 1, 2020
- ↑ The pandemic covid-19 in Kiribati . In Kiribati, updates as of March 18, 2020
- ↑ CONVID-19 Results proof negative in Tarawa . In Kiribati, updates as of March 30, 2020
- ↑ Kiribati to be last for state of emergency . In: Kiribati Updates March 24, 2020
- ↑ The Kiribati schools are first among lockdowns for the convid-19 . In: Kiribati Updates March 29, 2020
- ^ President declared Kiribati a state of public emergency for convid-19 . In: Kiribati Updates March 29, 2020
- ↑ Kiribati updates its 2019 Novel Coronavirus Health Travel Advisory . In: South Pacific Islands, undated, accessed April 15, 2020
- ↑ Are you traveling to Tarawa or Kiritimati Island? . In: MHMS, undated, accessed on April 15
