Looking for a place without COVID-19 cases? Apparently the region of Nunavut in Canada doesn’t have any official cases of the novel coronavirus, BBC News reports.
- Nunavut is a northern territory of Canada that has stayed free from the coronavirus, even though cases have begun to rise in Canada and the United States.
How they kept out cases
Nunavut health officials wanted to keep COVID-19 out of the community, so they added strict travel regulations.
- Almost all nonresidents were barred from entering the community.
- Residents who returned home had to quarantine for two weeks in “isolation hubs,” which are hotels in Winnipeg, Yellowknife, Ottawa and Edmonton in Canada.
- The government paid for the expenses.
- Security guards remain outside the hotels. Nurses check people in and monitor health for those staying inside.
“It’s not been without challenges. People have been caught breaking isolation and have had stays extended, which has in part contributed to occasional waiting times to enter the some of the hubs. There have been complaints about the food available to those confined there,” BBC News reports.
Countries without COVID-19
At the beginning of the pandemic, several countries touted the fact that they did not have COVID-19, including Tonga, Yemen, North Korea and Samoa, as I wrote or Deseret.
Skeptics admitted it’s hard to track all COVID-19 cases, though, since some symptoms are similar to the flu or a cold. Without proper testing, some countries might let cases go under the radar.
Per Al Jazeera, the list of countries without COVID-19 cases is now:
- Kiribati
- Marshall Islands
- Micronesia
- Nauru
- North Korea
- Palau
- Samoa
- Solomon Islands
- Tonga
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvalu
- Vanuatu