COVID-19 pandemic in the Marshall Islands
The virus was confirmed to have reached the Marshall Islands on 28 October 2020, but remained confined to quarantined arrivals (no domestic community spread) until August 2022.On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.[8][6] The first cases in the country were reported on 28 October 2020, among two members of the US Army Garrison, who were among a group of 300 Marshall Islanders abroad being repatriated.A group of high ranking leaders joined with Ministry of Health's doctors and nurses were the first to receive the United States government provided vaccines.The 20,000 vaccine doses were provided as a donation by the United States and were deemed sufficient to cover every island's populations.