SYDNEY (Reuters) – Pacific islands are imposing strictest lock-down measures to combat the coronavirus, denying access to supply vessels and prohibiting human-to-human contact during aircraft refueling, amid fears their small healthcare systems could be over-run.
The region recorded its first case of coronavirus this week, in French Polynesia, although most island nations cannot screen for Covid-19 cases onshore which is potentially masking its spread.
One of the wealthiest Pacific nations, Fiji, this week opened its first facility capable of testing for the coronavirus, one of only four such fac