Covid Has Reached Every Corner Of The World—But These Three Places Claim To Be Virus-Free

Topline

The highly transmissible omicron variant has whittled down the list of countries that have managed to escape the Covid-19 pandemic so far, breaking through the longstanding defenses of numerous Pacific island nations and forcing an unprecedented admission of crisis in North Korea, leaving just one country and a handful of territories still claiming to be Covid-free.

Atafu Atoll, Tokelau, the smallest of three atolls and one island comprising the Tokelau Islands.

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Key Facts

Turkmenistan, a landlocked country of more than 6 million people in Central Asia, is now the only nation in the world still claiming to be entirely Covid-free.

The claim sits poorly alongside informal reports of the disease coming from inside the secretive country and is doubted by experts—including at the World Health Organization—who believe it is propped up by dishonest data reported by Turkmen officials.

Tokelau and St Helena, respectively territories of New Zealand and Britain, are the only remaining regions that are claiming to still be Covid-free and have not reported a single case of Covid-19 to the WHO, something aided by their remote locations and strict quarantine procedures.

Covid infections skyrocketed in the Marshall Islands in August after the country confirmed its first local outbreak—it had previously reported cases among travelers but these were contained—ending its time as one of the few remaining Covid-free countries.

The situation mirrors the experience of several other Pacific island communities this year—including Niue, Kiribati, Samoa, Nauru, Vanuatu, Tonga and Micronesia, possibly the last country with a population exceeding 100,000 people to lose its Covid-free status—which managed to keep the virus at bay for years through a mix of geographic isolation, strict border controls and stringent quarantine rules.

North Korea, which spent more than two years denying it had any cases of Covid-19, acknowledged an outbreak in May and declared a national emergency after the explosive spread of the virus through its entirely unvaccinated population.

Key Background

Since China first reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan in late 2019, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has spread rapidly around the world. Travel restrictions, quarantines and harsh, even farcical, containment measures have done little to prevent its journey, particularly as more transmissible variants emerged. Even the most isolated communities like island nations or remote indigenous tribes have faced outbreaks. Such groups are typically vulnerable to emerging infectious diseases compared to other populations, with medical support sometimes days away, higher rates of other health conditions and lack of access to key preventative measures. While a number of countries like Australia and New Zealand maintained strict border controls to keep the virus out, almost all countries have now abandoned the most stringent policies designed to eliminate the virus and are learning to adapt and live with it, though China’s “zero-Covid” policy is a notable exception.

Surprising Fact

Even remote polar regions have been hit by the virus. Antarctica was the last continent to lose its Covid-free status in late 2020 when the Chilean army reported a flurry of cases at its Bernardo O’Higgins research station. There have been at least two other outbreaks recorded on the continent, one among workers at a Belgian scientific station beginning in December 2021 and another among staff at Argentina’s La Esperanza research base in January 2022. The first case of Covid-19 in the Arctic—a region covering parts of Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia and the U.S.—was reported in late February 2020. Since then, nearly 2.5 million residents have been infected (out of a population of 7 million) and more than 28,600 have died.

Big Number

602 million. That’s how many cases of Covid-19 have been reported globally since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The U.S. has reported more cases than any other country—94 million—according to JHU, followed by India (44 million), France (35 million), Brazil (34 million) and Germany (32 million). Nearly 6.5 million have died with the virus, according to JHU data, led by the U.S. (1 million), Brazil (684,000), India (528,000) and Russia (376,000).

What We Don’t Know

The true toll of Covid-19 is likely to be far greater than official figures suggest. Testing quality and capacity varies greatly between countries, asymptomatic people are unlikely to be picked up reliably and different nations use different criteria for recording cases and deaths, making direct comparisons difficult. The number of excess deaths, a metric which compares the number of deaths to what would be expected given past experiences, is a more accurate measure of the pandemic’s impact and includes those not counted by official statistics, as well as those who may have died from causes related to the pandemic. Estimates of excess deaths suggest the death toll is far larger than official figures indicate, possibly even three times higher. Though more accurate, this figure does not begin to capture the experiences of many survivors enduring lingering symptoms of Long Covid, struggles during the pandemic and long-term impact on children from prolonged shutdowns.