COVID-19 pandemic in Easter Island

The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the Chilean island and special territory of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in March 2020.

COVID-19 pandemic in Easter Island
DiseaseCOVID-19
Virus strainSARS-CoV-2
LocationRapa Nui, Chile
Index caseHanga Roa
Arrival date24 March 2020
(4 months, 3 weeks and 1 day)
Confirmed cases5
Suspected cases‡0
Recovered5
Deaths
0
‡Suspected cases have not been confirmed as being due to this strain by laboratory tests, although some other strains may have been ruled out.

Background

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.[1][2]

The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003,[3][4] but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.[5][3]

Timeline

On 19 March, the local government of Easter Island ordered a lockdown of the island and requested LATAM Airlines to evacuate all tourists on the island.[6]

On 24 March, the first case in Easter Island was confirmed,[7] followed by a second one in the following days. By the start of April, 5 confirmed cases had been reported. A sixth case was reported in mid April;[8] however, the Ministry of Health confirmed a few days later that the case was a false positive. All cases have recovered after some weeks and no new cases have been reported since.

On 24 April, confusion arose at Santiago International Airport regarding positive results for COVID-19 on tests conducted on natives waiting to return to Easter Island. While the airport authority declared that they had not been involved, and Chilean health minister Jaime Mañalich described the situation as a "misunderstanding" because the people had been symptom-free and no tests had been scheduled by the Chilean health ministry, it was later clarified that the municipality of Rapa Nui had been behind the testing. According to Pedro Edmunds Paoa, the test kits had been purchased from South Korea by the local authorities of Easter Island, and the testing procedure was part of a safety protocol. A group of 20 persons of people who had tested positive at the airport or had close contact with them decided to stay in Santiago for a voluntary quarantine of 14 days, amidst fears that their immediate return to the island would result in discrimination, while the remainder of the 527 passengers had departed as planned.[9]

On 1 July, after 100 days of no contracted COVID-19 cases, schools were reopened on the island. Safety measures include the wearing of face masks and students' temperatures being taken upon entering the school.[10]

Impact

Tourism

Fears that the island's health system, which consists of just a single hospital[11] with only 3 ventilators could be quickly overwhelmed resulted in the fast closure of the island, leading to around a 1000 tourists becoming stranded on the island. The local government and some hotels provided free stay and food for those who had run out of money, and eventually the visitors were evacuated to mainland Chile via chartered flights. But now many on the island – whose economy depends heavily on tourism – feared that they won't see the return of sufficient numbers of tourists anytime soon.[12]

Mitigation Measures

To combat the crisis, native islanders have turned to the ancestral Polynesian tradition of Tapu,[note 1] which resulted in a cultural acceptance of the lockdown and the self-isolation of affected families. In addition, many native people whose regular work (e.g. in tourism) was interrupted started cultivating their land to grow food.[13] The Tapu tradition is based around "sustainability and respect", potentially helping mitigate the expected decline in tourism revenue, while also safeguarding the elderly from the disease, who are especially valued in local tradition yet also especially vulnerable to COVID-19.[14]

The provincial government has also outlined a plan to counteract economic losses and supply shortages. These include financial aid, public construction works and plans to strengthen local agriculture by distributing seeds. It was also ensured that outside supply – on which the remote island depends – would be able to once again reach Rapa Nui via cargo ships; in addition, there had been talks with the FACH and Navy regarding potential help in case a real supply crisis struck.[15]

Case summary
Week New cases Total cases
15-03-2020 to 21-03-2020 2 2
22-03-2020 to 28-03-2020 1 3
29-03-2020 to 04-04-2020 2 5
05-04-2020 to 11-04-2020 0 5
12-04-2020 to 18-04-2020 0 5

See also

Notes
  1. from which the English word taboo is derived

References
  1. Elsevier. "Novel Coronavirus Information Center". Elsevier Connect. Archived from the original on 30 January 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  2. Reynolds, Matt (4 March 2020). "What is coronavirus and how close is it to becoming a pandemic?". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Archived from the original on 5 March 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  3. "Crunching the numbers for coronavirus". Imperial News. Archived from the original on 19 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  4. "High consequence infectious diseases (HCID); Guidance and information about high consequence infectious diseases and their management in England". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 3 March 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  5. "World Federation Of Societies of Anaesthesiologists – Coronavirus". www.wfsahq.org. Archived from the original on 12 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  6. Clarín.com. "Coronavirus en Chile: los moai de Isla de Pascua, en cuarentena". www.clarin.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  7. "De origen autóctono: Rapa Nui confirma primer contagio de coronavirus en la isla" (in Spanish). CNN Chile. 24 March 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  8. Ministry of Health of Chile (15 April 2020). "Informe epidemiológico – Enfermedad por SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-2019)" (PDF) (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  9. Villalobos D., Fernanda (25 April 2020). "Las distintas versiones del "malentendido" caso de personas que no pudieron viajar a Rapa Nui por tener covid-19". emol.Nacional (in Spanish). El Mercurio. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  10. "Alumnos vuelven a clases en la remota Isla de Pascua libre de coronavirus" [Students return to classes on remote Coronavirus-free Easter Island] (in Spanish). France 24. 2 July 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  11. "Inauguran Hospital Hanga Roa en Isla de Pascua" (in Spanish). Infraestructura Hospitalaria. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015.
  12. Rapu, Sergio (2 July 2020). "The Island, the Tourist, and the Pandemic". Independent Lens. PBS. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  13. Agence France-Presse (5 April 2020). "Easter Island inhabitants turn to tradition to tackle virus troubles". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  14. Neilson, Michael (11 April 2020). "Covid 19 coronavirus: How a Kiwi/Rapa Nui family is coping in one of the world's most isolated locations - Easter Island". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  15. "Gobernación Provincial ya gestiona medidas económicas para paliar efectos del Covid19 en Rapa Nui" [Provincial Government already manages economic measures to mitigate the effects of Covid19 in Rapa Nui] (Press release) (in Spanish). Easter Island: Gobernación Provincia de Isla de Pascua. 27 April 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
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