Pacific countries are no longer COVID-19 free paradise

Vanuatu has joined just a handful of Pacific countries with active COVID-19 cases. They are Nauru, Tonga, Kiribati, Micronesia, Palau, Samoa and Tuvalu. But a growing economic crisis and the need to repatriate citizens stuck overseas have pushed some countries to relax their borders.

So can Pacific countries continue to avoid the pandemic?

Thanks to their geographic isolation, many Pacific countries have been able to swiftly close their borders and prevent the pandemic from reaching their shores.

But the need to bring home thousands of citizens stuck overseas has meant Pacific borders haven’t stayed shut for long. Solomon Islands, Fiji and now Vanuatu have all recorded cases of COVID-19 in repatriated citizens while they have been in quarantine.

Many Pacific economies rely on tourism, and have faced financial crises during the pandemic. That outlook prompted French Polynesia to open its borders to international tourists in July.

Within a month, it had recorded 70 new cases of COVID-19, with bars and restaurants visited by tourists identified as hotspots for transmission.

The Government soon faced public backlash for its decision; Tahiti resident Vehia Wheeler said in August “it feels like we are disposable as a population”.