The coronavirus has now infiltrated every county in the United States, including the smallest – a remote Hawaiian island with fewer than 100 residents that housed a colony of lepers.
Kalawao County, which is so remote that it receives barge supplies once a year, registered its first case of COVID-19 in December, almost a year after the deadly virus appeared in the U.S. in Snohomish County, near Seattle, reported the Wall Street Journal.
The tiny enclave on the island of Molokai was established in 1865 for leprosy patients – now known as leprosy – who would remain in exile there for the rest of their lives, according to the newspaper, which reviewed data from Johns Hopkins and individual states for its report.
Hawaiian health officials took steps to isolate the settlement after watching the disease sweep US homes for senior citizens early last year – and authorities banned county visits to protect its five remaining leprosy patients, whose average age is 86, according to the Journal.
Some of the five have serious underlying health problems that put them at high risk for serious complications or death from the coronavirus, Hawaii health official Glenn Wasserman told the news agency.
But the isolated county finally registered its first case after a resident returned from a trip to Honolulu after taking a COVID-19 test. The person, who had no symptoms, then tested positive, the Journal reported.
The virus did not spread, however, because the person and three close contacts on the same flight were immediately quarantined.
“For me, that person was a hero, because they were honest and reported it, and followed the quarantine rules when they returned from outside the settlement,” Wasserman told the newspaper.