This small nation has zero cases Crown. After a devastating cyclone to keep it that way denying foreign aid workers

The Crown pandemic has now reached 185 countries and infected more than 2 million people. But Vanuatu has spared so far. The small Pacific island nation is one of the few places in the world with confirmed cases of COVID-19 Cyclone Harold, however, has not spared. The Category 5 storm, one of the strongest ever recorded in the South-East Pacific, caused catastrophic damage when it struck on April 6 Nearly 160,000 of the 300,000 inhabitants of the country were affected, according to Oxfam. The UN estimates that in some places, 80-90% of the population have lost homes, now isolated Vanuatu, consisting of some 80 islands over 800 miles in the South Pacific stretching, finds its answer difficult to prevent catastrophe through its other efforts. To prevent the crown is brought to Vanuatu, officials have banned foreign aid workers to enter the country to help. “It is a race meet internally. We have to work together,” the National Disaster Management Office in the country (NDMO) said on its Facebook page. Countries, including Australia, New Zealand and China is flying in aid, but all supplies entering asked for three days in quarantine and sanitized to ensure that there is no persistent corona. The devastating storm in Vanuatu along with a series of tornadoes that rocked the southern United States during the Easter weekend to provide an unwelcome reminder that not subside natural disasters COVID-19 waiting. And although some countries have been able to keep the crown far, the situation Vanuatu an example bleak than harder disaster relief during the pandemic, as officials struggle with how to respond to a natural disaster, without the citizens the deadly virus suspension. “He ‘a disaster wrapped in a disaster in a disaster,” says Sheldon yett, UNICEF Representative for the Pacific island countries. Keep From Crown is making it difficult to get help in March, authorities in Vanuatu have adopted penetrate hold and spread in the country stringent measures crown. All borders and airports were closed and the archipelago forbidden to travel between the islands. Curfews have been banned for businesses and public transport, and gatherings of more than five people have been imposed. “Vanuatu happiness is that it is an archipelago of islands and relatively isolated, those who their limits by the vast majority of visitors can stop very effective,” Jonathan Pryke, director of the Pacific Islands Program to Think Australian said tank Lowy institutions. But now some of these restrictions impede the flow of aid. The Espiritu Santo islands (known locally as “Saint”) and Whit in which two people are reported following the storm hit hard were dead. Vanuatu resident Ian Baltor says friends and family say Pentecost, that looks like a bomb went off. “It ‘s been hell,” he says. “When you consider the extent of the damage, it’s amazing that through it.” He was in Espiritu Santo, close to 70% of the buildings may be the second largest in Luganville, Vanuatu City, destroyed according to Radio New Zealand. “Many homes are gone,” said Gaviga Onen, deputy mayor of Luganville. Vanuatu’s decision not to admit foreign aid workers complicates efforts to bring aid to those in, say aid agencies. The country currently enough people with the right skills and technical training is lacking to address the problems of Vanuatu is facing, says Dr. Collin Tukuitonga, the Associate Dean (Pacific) at the University of Auckland Medical School and the former director general of the international development Association of the Pacific Community. “There is a small group of people with the consequences of the storm, as well as preparing for job COVID-19 is expected to employ,” he says. “You have a hell of a job on their hands.” Since the storm, the government has restrictions on domestic air and travel lift sea to facilitate the movement of relief supplies, according to the United Nations, but the first constraints and a lack of commercial flights that operate makes it “very, very, very difficult for health workers to get where they need to go, humanitarian workers, where to go and critical supplies where they need to go, “says UNICEF yett. The day of Pentecost, in which affected about 2,000 families, the Red Cross has the support of 25 volunteers of the government’s efforts, according to Olivia Finau, head of communications for the Vanuatu Red Cross Society. could be used more than 100 volunteers usually after a storm of this size, he says. some vulnerable concern in Corona Despite the precautions to reach the risk of COVID-19, the island and beyond the spread has increased. “I’m not convinced that adequate safeguards are in place to arrive for flight crews on Vanuatu earth,” Dan McGarry, an independent journalist who lives for most of the past 17 years in Vanuatu, told TIME. With thousands of houses destroyed in the country, many have fled to crowded evacuation centers, where social distancing is impossible. could increase emergency shelters risk COVID-19 spread if it reaches the country, says Tukuitonga. “If COVID-19 are now in place, it would just go like wildfire,” he says. That says it would be given a weak health system disaster in the country: “The health system is underfunded, lacking a lot of skills required, the buildings are quite old, which often do not have the right medication necessary, they do not have the necessary equipment presented. “Given the danger COVID-19, across the country, many believe in Vanuatu that strict precautions to prevent COVID-19 to reach the remote island nation it is necessary, although residents struggling to recover the devastating storm. “The cyclone came, the cyclone has left, but COVID-19, which could be here forever,” says Baltor.
image copyright World Vision / AP