Majuro — The first positive cases of Covid-19 were confirmed among two American U.S. Army Garrison — Kwajalein Atoll or USAG-KA workers who arrived Tuesday this week as part of an ongoing repatriation program at the missile testing range in the Marshall Islands.
Army and Marshall Islands authorities confirmed that a female aged 35 and a male aged 46 both tested positive for coronavirus soon after arrival. They had tested negative in Honolulu prior to boarding Tuesday’s military flight to Kwajalein Atoll.
Marshall Islands authorities said there had been no contact with people in the Kwajalein base community as the two, along with the others in the weekly repatriation group, are in managed quarantine at the Army base.
Underlining the significance of this development in a country that has been one of a dozen globally to remain unaffected by Covid-19, President David Kabua delivered a statement Wednesday night that was broadcast live on the government’s AM radio station.
ADVERTISEMENT
It is not yet clear what impact this development will have on the scheduled arrival from Honolulu this Saturday of a group of 27 Marshallese to begin a 21-day quarantine at USAG-KA, the first Marshallese to come into the country from a country with Covid-19. They are among a group of about 300 Marshall Islanders who have been stranded in Hawaii, Guam and elsewhere since the Marshall Islands closed its borders in early March to prevent Covid-19 spread to this western Pacific nation.
In anticipation of arrival this Saturday of the first group of Marshallese to be repatriated from a Covid-19 infected nation, the Marshall Islands government launched Covid-19 awareness sessions last week Friday for the public. It is not yet clear if the Covid positive status of two base workers will force delay of the first group of 27 Marshallese scheduled to arrive at the U.S. Army base at Kwajalein Saturday. Photo by Eve Burns.
“What we were worried about has come true,” said repatriation critic Ebon Atoll Mayor Marie Davis Milne Wednesday night on social media following the government’s announcement of the two Covid-positive cases in quarantine. “Now lives are going to be put on hold because a handful of people made the decisions they did for whatever reasons. Life as we all knew it will be in limbo until further notice because of the choices of a few.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Neither of the two American base workers was showing any signs of Covid-19, said the government in a statement issued late Wednesday.
“The National Disaster Committee, in close coordination with the President and the Cabinet and USAG-KA, are rapidly responding to these cases and we can assure the public that these are strictly border cases and were discovered while these people were in quarantine, where they remain until this time,” said Chief Secretary Kino Kabua in a statement.
A 35-year old female tested positive on the evening of October 27, a few hours after arriving at the Kwajalein Army base Tuesday. “This person was known to have had Covid-19 in late July,” said Kabua in her statement.
The base worker tested negative for the virus this past weekend in Hawaii before boarding the military flight to Kwajalein. She received an antibody test, the results of which are still pending. This will determine if this Covid-19 case is indeed a historical infection, meaning the person previously had Covid-19 and is not infectious or contagious, said the chief secretary’s statement.
ADVERTISEMENT
The other positive case involves a 46-year-old American male, who tested positive October 28, after also arriving the previous day on the same flight the other positive individual “We are still waiting for the results of the antibody test,” said Kabua, adding: “As far as we know, this person previously did not have Covid-19.”
“The two cases are not epidemiologically linked and protocols in place on USAG-KA have ensured they have not had contact with the community,” said Kabua. “Both, along with their tranche, remain under strict quarantine.”
Kabua said these cases remain “border quarantine cases of Covid-19, with no threat of community transmission.”
A total of 223 U.S. Army missile range workers and nine others have been released after successfully completing 21-day quarantine periods at the U.S. Army base at Kwajalein since repatriation of mostly base workers began June 9.
The latest report issued Monday by the Ministry of Health shows that a total of 280 people were repatriated through the USAG-KA quarantine system since June 9.
Of the 280, two were returned to the U.S.: one for discipline issues, the other because of a non-Covid emergency medical situation. Of the remaining 278, 223 USAG-KA workers successfully completed quarantine and multiple Covid-19 tests prior to being released to return to work at Kwajalein. Nine others — a range of Marshallese and various nationalities, including U.S. Embassy and Australian Navy personnel — also completed quarantine at USAG-KA. Another 46 were still in quarantine as of earlier this week.
ADVERTISEMENT
Separate from the U.S. Army-sponsored quarantine, the first group of Marshallese to return from Hawaii is scheduled to arrive at Kwajalein this weekend to begin 21-days of quarantine. The government’s cabinet was meeting to decide if the Marshallese repatriation plan would proceed this weekend in light of the new development at the Army base.
Milne, at a public briefing about repatriation held last Friday by the chief secretary’s office, called for the government to put off repatriation of Marshallese. She warned of the threat Covid-19 spread presented to the population of the Marshall Islands, which is at high risk for the virus because of numerous underlying health conditions. (Marianas Variety)