While the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc around the globe, the remoteness of the Pacific Islands has left people living there vulnerable in many different ways. 

UN Resident Coordinator Sanaka Samarasinha said in an interview with UN News, that with borders and airports shut down, protection gear, specialist personnel, and life-saving medical supplies have been unable to reach many areas in need.

And the crisis has only been heightened by the devastation inflicted by category 5 Cyclone Harold, which ripped through Vanuatu. 

Mr. Samarasinha, who oversees UN operations in Fiji, Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Palau, Tonga, Vanuatu, Nauru and Tuvalu, acknowledged to Julia Dean, that difficulties in moving people and cargo has been impinging on the UN’s ability to respond to the coronavirus crisis.