Coronavirus: Which nations still have no cases?

There are fewer and fewer countries that are reporting no coronavirus cases around the world as infections approach one million across the globe.

While the coronavirus continues to sweep the world, there are some countries that have managed to avoid it so far.

More than 800,000 cases of COVID-19 have now been confirmed across 178 countries, with Europe and the United States the new epicentres of the crisis.

More than 38,000 people have died.

Several countries still have just one or two cases but many have none.

Among them are Yemen, South Sudan, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Tonga.

In total there are 19 countries without the virus, all in Africa, Asia or the Oceania.

There are 26 territories including the Cook Islands and American Samoa.

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World cases of coronavirus. Picture: John Hopkins University

Elsewhere cases continue to soar, with the death rate exploding in New York.

On Tuesday, the number of reported deaths as a result of the coronavirus pandemic shot up within 24 hours by 253 to just over 1200, a number Governor Andrew Cuomo called “staggering”.

“That’s a lot of loss, that’s a lot of pain, that’s a lot of tears, that’s a lot of grief that people all across this state are feeling,” the governor said at a briefing in Manhattan.

State officials expect the number of deaths to continue to rise as the outbreak reaches its projected peak in the coming weeks.

Both the United Kingdom and Spain have reported their deadliest days so far.

New research from Imperial College London has shown vast lockdowns of millions of people across Europe have saved up to 120,000 lives

Last month news.com.au reported the only two countries without the infection in Europe were Montenegro and Turkey.

Now those countries have 109 and 13,531 respectively.

More than 200 people have died from COVID-19 in Turkey.

Figures have more than doubled in the Pacific since last week, with 120 cases, excluding Australia and New Zealand.

Guam is the region’s hotspot with 58 cases and two deaths. There are fears the island is fast approaching capacity in hospitals and deaths could increase.

China has been sending supplies to the region and Australia and New Zealand will offer support.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have provided vital supplies to Pacific Island governments, including more than 170,000 essential medical and laboratory items.

UNICEF Pacific representative Sheldon Yett said children in the Pacific were the “hidden victims” of the pandemic.

Since the outbreak of #COVID19, UNICEF has been supporting Pacific Island governments to help communities prepare and respond to the threat faced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more: https://t.co/Et4RjeE6rJ pic.twitter.com/J6tXjEhCW2

— UNICEF Pacific (@UNICEFPacific) March 30, 2020

The UN said economic fallout from COVID-19 was likely to get “much worse” before it gets better for some six billion people living in developing economies.

UN Conference on Trade and Development director of globalisation and development strategies, Richard Kozul-Wright, said the health crisis was still to come in many developing countries.

“Now, if that crisis comes as these countries have been significantly weakened by the economic shockwaves from the crisis,” he said.

“And that is a … very vicious combination of an economic crisis and a health crisis. So we’ve got to find ways of strengthening the healthcare system and services in developing countries and building up resilience on that front very quickly.”

The UN has called for the immediate release of political prisoners and detainees in war-ravaged Yemen to help avert a nationwide outbreak of COVID-19.

Analysis from aid organisation CARE listed 15 “very high risk countries”, most of them in the Middle East and Africa — Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger and Haiti.

It found they had three times higher exposure to epidemics and six times higher risk in terms of accessing healthcare.