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Noumea (AFP)
The remote territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific, one of the few places on the planet that has avoided Covid-19, will be subjected to a strict block after the detection of nine cases, local officials said on Sunday.
The outbreak in the French archipelago was detected after a school principal fell ill on the Wallis and Futuna Islands – another French territory in the Pacific – prompting authorities to track cases.
“From the first indications, the patient developed symptoms in mid-February and may have been infectious in Wallis and Futuna since the end of January,” Thierry Santa, head of local government in New Caledonia, told reporters.
Travel between the two French territories before was unrestricted, while anyone arriving from elsewhere had to go through a strict 14-day quarantine at a hotel.
Santa Claus announced a two-week blockade to New Caledonia starting on Monday night, to “halt the transmission of the virus while there is still time”.
The islands had already managed to prevent the community transmission of the new coronavirus, which reached almost every corner of the globe.
New Caledonia, which is on the northwest coast of Australia, has already been used as a penal colony by French authorities because of its remote location.
© 2021 AFP