If you want to travel to somewhere really safe…;-)
As of this writing, there have been over 4 million cases of coronavirus diagnosed worldwide. It’s torn people apart from friends and families by social distancing, and sometimes by death, and, more recently, by wacky conspiracy theories.
However, there are a few countries on earth that, so far, have never had even one case. Or at least say they haven’t, but that’s another story ;-). Take a look…
PC: Statistica
Now, those first two, they’re iffy.
North Korea would not win the “telling the truth all the time” contest and Turkmenistan is also usually a contender for the “liar, liar, pants on fire” award. So those two? It’s very possible they do indeed have, or at least have had coronavirus in their respective countries and just didn’t report it. But for what it’s worth, sources in South Korea say that North Korea did get it, it via the Chinese border.
Most of the other countries are teeny, tiny places in the far off Pacific Ocean. I’m not embarrassed to say that I stunk in geography (although spelling counted when we took geography tests in school, so to this day I can still spell Czechoslovakia. Lot of good that does me now, huh?), so for those of you who may not know:
- Solomon Islands – A nation of hundreds of islands in the South Pacific
- Vanuatu – South Pacific Ocean. Comprised of about 80 islands.
- Samoa – Not the same as, and east of American Samoa. Consists of 2 main islands in the South Pacific
- Kiribati – Central Pacific Ocean. Pop. 110,000
- Federated States of Micronesia – 600+ islands in the western Pacific Ocean
- Tonga – Polynesian kingdom in the South Pacific. Comprised of 170+ islands
- Marshall Islands – Chain of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean
- Palau – Archipelago of 500+ islands in the western Pacific Ocean
- Tuvalu – comprised of 9 islands in the South Pacific
- Nauru – A tiny island, northeast of Australia
For you Disney fans out there, a lot of the long huts of the Polynesian Resort Hotel were renamed in 1999 to better reflect Polynesia. Several of them are named after the islands above. Here’s some fun info about traveling there.
The only other country that claims it hasn’t had a case of coronavirus yet is Lesotho. It’s a tiny nation in southern Africa. It’s been suggested that between the county being very mountainous and difficult to get to, on top of its surrounding neighbor, South Africa, going on lockdown early, may have saved the small country from anyone with the virus to enter and pass it on to others. However some people think there could potentially be some cases there that have just gone unnoticed – the country is in political upheaval right now (its Prime Minister has been charged with murdering his estranged wife, who was assassinated in 2017) and the government just may not be thinking about cases that could be part of a pandemic. So there’s that.
Those are the COVID-free countries according to Statista. The WHO believes there are a few more:
- Cook Islands (15 islands off the coast of New Zealand. You may recall that when our friends were stranded on that “healthy” cruise ship for 3 weeks, Cook Islands was the last place that let them get off the ship)
- Niue (a small island in the South Pacific)
It’s thought that the small islands in the Pacific have been spared because the vast majority of their visitors are from Asia, and those countries shut down early.
Whatever the case, for those countries that are COVID free, good for them and may they stay that way!
#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
2 comments
I legitimately had flights booked you a third of these places, and was planning to visit Turkmenistan, and many others on this list in May (still am planning it).
I’m trying to understand what the end game is. Will they just keep their borders closed forever? Do they no longer need tourism in the South Pacific?
It all seems very strange to me.
Well they just try to stave their own people, until there’s a revolution? It’s so….. strange.
I’ll say that Vanuatu is a wonderful place to visit. You can dive the largest accessible wreck, the S.S. Coolidge, on Espiritu Santo and visit a live volcano on Tanna. I have been there four times for work and pleasure.