President Jovenel Moise announced Haiti's first two cases of novel coronavirus on Thursday as his government adopted extraordinary measures to contain its spread.
"We have found the two first cases of coronavirus in our national territory," Moise said during an address televised on state media.
Immediately, the country implement a curfew, banned gathers of greater than 10 people, closed boarders and schools. That is an immediate action over just two cases.
I did an Internet search to see how these cases came to Haiti. Voice of America speculated that one might be a university professor and potentially a foreign national (who had recently returned from her home country) who had tested negative.
Even before the virus hit the shores of Haiti, the country had already taken some actions. The Miami Herald wrote about those actions on March 15th:
Haiti, one of the few Caribbean nations with no recorded cases of the new coronavirus, announced Sunday a shutdown of its border with the Dominican Republic, a ban on travel for government officials, and a suspension of flights from Europe, Canada, the Dominican Republic, and Latin America..
“For the moment, we will keep the flights from the United States,” Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe said, adding that the government is evaluating the daily flights originating from Miami and New York into Port-au-Prince and the Fort Lauderdale flights into Cap-Haïtien.
Voice of America reported an unexpected response from the medical professionals that I haven't read about from any other country:
The seafoam green rooms of the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince are predominantly empty this week, absent the doctors and nurses who refuse to work for fear of becoming infected with the coronavirus.
Haiti has 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19, spanning four departments (Haiti is divided administratively into 10 regional departments), Public Health Minister Marie Greta Roy Clement told reporters Monday. More than 200 people are quarantined while they await test results, she said.
This Voice of America article is date March 31st. From the first two cases on March 20th, you end up with 200 people in quarantine. It does make you wonder if individuals are at the university as that just seems like a lot of people to put under quarantine.
Voice of America also wrote on March 16 (prior before the first two cases) about a potential location where the virus could hit hard:
Vendors at the busy Croix-des-Bossales market in downtown Port-au-Prince have not heard much about the coronavirus pandemic that is currently sweeping the world.
VOA Creole found Monday that half of the vendors were busy trying to make ends meet and had no knowledge or incorrect information about the virus.
Haiti Times reports some anecdotal
Even before the first coronavirus case was diagnosed in Haiti, people began stocking up on food. Earlier this month, [Kerventz Sylus] recounted seeing long lines at a public market in the Delmas 95 neighborhood. Vendors, he recalled, were completely sold out within six hours.
. . . Sylus said he has noticed some people in his “zone” developing a cough and even walking around with masks. But government orders to stay home have been met with skepticism by some. On March 22, many people in Thomassin still gathered for Sunday church services.
It is probably concerning about the coughing that Sylus observed. Also, the fact that people were going to church. We know that in the United States, churches have been a source for the spread of COVID-19. This LA Times articles discusses a choir that met at a church practice and how the virus appears to have spread due to that choir practice. Churches have hymnal selections during their services. It appears that singing is a way that the virus spreads around (probably due to droplets that travel much farther than during normal talking).
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