Ifah SakinahFollowing the recovery of 11 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, Greenland has become the only country with no active cases.
Also, no citizen has yet succumbed to the deadly virus.
According to the national media office in Denmark, Greenland announced its first case of the novel coronavirus in 16 March and has reported a total of 11 cases since the outbreak. The numbers in Greenland are now clearing up while cases surge elsewhere.
Worldometer which tracks coronavirus cases around the globe corroborates the occurrence. Greenland, out of the 210 countries and territories affected, is the only country which bounced back quickly, and now has no active cases of COVID-19 at present.
The European Union Observer reported that all of the cases had occurred in the capital city of Nuuk. It is the most populous city in the country with more than 18,000 residents. Diagnosed citizens had gone into quarantine and since picked up.
In order to contain the spread of COVID-19, the country has implemented strict measures. Greenland has closed off all of its borders, with no one entering or leaving without permission in hopes of preventing history from repeating itself.
“A grim history of deadly epidemics brought to Greenland in the 18th and 19th century by European colonisers has fuelled fears that the coronavirus, if not checked, will fast reach the many small outlying villages, thereby creating urgent and impossible demands for emergency air transport and intensive care in Greenland’s small hospitals,” according to the report.
However, it remains unclear whether the virus would return. The country’s fishing industry requires trade with Europe and North America – epicentres of the coronavirus outbreak – to keep itself sustained.
