Isolated by oceans: Hawaii, other islands tamp down virus

HONOLULU (AP) — Flying to a faraway beach might seem like the perfect way to escape a pandemic, but for isolated Pacific islands, controlling the coronavirus means cutting off tourism.

Hawaii has among the lowest COVID-19 infection and mortality rates in the U.S. As cases rose in March, Gov. David Ige did something no other state can — effectively seal its borders. People who do come face a two-week quarantine, stopping the flow of tens of thousands of tourists who typically arrive every day.

“We are the most isolated community on the planet,” Ige told The Associated Press last week. “As such, we’ve got to be more self-reliant, but we also had the opportunity to enact a quarantine, make it meaningful and most importantly, know that we could really dramatically reduce the number of visitors we get.”

With more than 2,000 miles (3,220 kilometers) of ocean separating it from the rest of the world, Hawaii has an advantage over other remote states with low rates of infection and death. Unlike Alaska, Montana and Wyoming, there's no driving or taking a train to the islands, so fewer people will be arriving and spreading the disease as businesses begin to reopen.

But the travel restrictions have walloped an economy dependent on tourism, and they will be among the last to end, officials say. Hawaii now has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates.

“The sacrifice of keeping our community safe and healthy," Ige said, “has come at the expense of more than 225,000 residents who are now unemployed” — about a third of Hawaii’s workforce.

Of the few places in the world with no confirmed COVID-19 infections, nearly all are islands in the Pacific.

American Samoa, a U.S. territory west of Hawaii, is the nation's only jurisdiction with no cases to date....