How have the remotest places on Earth fared during COVID-19?

This past March, passenger service on the “Silver Supporter,” a lifeline to the outside world for the Pitcairn Islands, was suspended due to COVID-19. A 32-hour trip on the freighter is normally the last leg of the journey to this British outpost in the southern Pacific, following at least two flights and a ferry ride. But with its population of about 50 descendants of HMS Bounty mutineers located at least two days' travel from the nearest hospital, the territory wasn’t taking any chances.

Despite the best efforts of places like the Pitcairns, the mixed record of the most remote, sparsely populated locales in the world when it comes to avoiding COVID-19 is testament to the disease’s daunting ability to spread. While it’s true that these places are generally protected by their isolation, that isolation can also make them especially vulnerable to outbreaks.

The administrator of Tristan da Cunha, a remote island in the south Atlantic Ocean with a population of about 250, wrote this past May that while the locals there are used to isolation, “we still follow the news on the television, and are very concerned” about the spreading coronavirus – though it had yet to arrive.

Other places have been less fortunate. Papua New Guinea, where the bulk of the population lives more than 10 kilometres from the closest major road, registered 11 confirmed cases of COVID-19 by 14 July. Montserrat, a relatively difficult-to-reach Caribbean island where the population declined by roughly half between 1990 and 2015 as volcano eruptions buried its former capital, registered 12 by that point – and one death.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui), the Chilean territory located more than a few thousand kilometres west of the mainland in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, with 7,750 inhabitants and nearly 1,000 famous statues, has confirmed a handful of cases. And Greenland, the least densely populated place in the world, registered 13 cases as of 14 July.

This past March, officials in the Falkland Islands implemented social distancing measures in an archipelago with less than 0.3 people per square kilometre. Yet, the British overseas territory located about 500 kilometres east of Argentina had 13 confirmed cases of COVID-19 by 14 July.

It’s not particularly easy to reach the Falklands. Normally, there are twice-weekly flights from the UK via the Royal Air Force, though civilians were recently restricted to every third flight due to the pandemic. The islands also implemented a requirement that visitors quarantine for two weeks, with the exception of UK military personnel in quarantine before arrival (Argentina, 38 years after a war broke out over the matter, still considers “las islas Malvinas” occupied territory).

Regardless of their direct exposure to COVID-19, many remote locations have suffered at least indirectly – as tourism has vanished, and as traditional means of importing food and other essentials have faltered.

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