Masks and gloves have arrived on Pentecost island in Vanuatu - a week after the first cases of Covid-19 were confirmed there.
Photo: 123RF
The personal protective equipment arrived on a chartered plane from Port Vila for health centres, dispensaries and clinics.
There is heightened concern on Pentecost that Covid-19 has been able to spread because masks and gloves had not been available for people collecting cargo from the vessels and charter flights arriving from Efate and Santo, the only places where covid had occurred, up to last week.
Chief Visisio Bubunbah from Pentecost island's Council of Chiefs has welcomed the assistance from the government but said it's too late to prevent the spread of Covid-19 on the island.
He said prevention is better than cure and masks and gloves should have been distributed when the outbreak began in Port Vila and Luganville last month.
The outbreak on Pentecost began with the discovery that students who had been reported to have flu in fact had got the omicron virus.
Investigations continue into how it got to Pentecost.