Coronavirus on St Helena

I'm pleased to report that so far there are no confirmed cases of COVID 19 disease on St Helena. The British overseas territory consists of a small and very remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean. A suspected case was announced on the 27th of March, but the patient was later tested and found to be negative. The island is still at the Prevent stage of the pandemic. There was a social distancing policy initiated on the 21st of last month and it will come to and end tomorrow, the 14th of April. A number of Saints who arrived on flights before the lockdown were ordered to self-isolate for fourteen days; this period came to and end last week. The MV Helena has been dropping off medical supplies and hand sanitizer. There have also been a few emergency viral screening kits that taken to the island by special flight. Source: https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/2020/news/coronavirus-covid-19-st-helena-preparedness-update-9/. Therefore St Helena may well be one of the few places on earth that can be declared coronavirus-free. This is of course a testament to its extreme geographical isolation. In fact if anybody comes down with the illness now, this could be seen as evidence for the "panspermia" theory of viruses, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2019/10/crashed-lunar-lander-left-something-on.html. Nevertheless, the Saints have been lucky. The presence of the airport has made the safety of the island from COVID 19 more difficult to arrange. Without the airport, keeping the pandemic away from the island would have been almost effortless. The same goes for other infectious illnesses. When the airport was constructed, the builders from Basil Read were tested for HIV before being sent to St Helena, but realistically can AIDS be kept out of the population long term? Once again, I am not making any pronouncement of whether St Helena Airport is a good or bad thing; I am just explaining how there are disadvantages to it along with the advantages.

See here for background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2020/02/st-helena-airport-portal.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/04/random-rainbows.html.