PAPEETE, March 12, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – A member of France’s parliament
representing French Polynesia is the first confirmed case of the coronavirus
in the South Pacific, officials said Wednesday.
Maina Sage began feeling ill on Monday, two days after returning to the
French pacific territory from France, the territory’s president Edouard
Fritch said.
Sage was in self-isolation at her home and her symptoms were not considered
serious, officials said.
The authorities did not say how she caught the virus. On February 26 she
met with the French Culture Minister Franck Riester, who was later confirmed
to have the disease.
There have been two confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US state of
Hawaii, but none others reported on Pacific islands, with suspected cases in
the Marshall Islands, Fiji, Tonga and Palau all testing negative.
New Zealand has had five confirmed cases, but no fatalities.
The geographic isolation and under-resourced health facilities on many
Pacific island nations mean they are particularly vulnerable to infectious
outbreaks.
The devastating impact was seen late last year when a measles epidemic in
Samoa killed 83 people, most of them babies and toddlers.
As a result, Pacific nations have introduced some of the world’s toughest
travel restrictions to combat coronavirus, including the Marshalls this week
banning all inbound air travellers to the archipelago.