2020 On 1 February 2020, the
government of Kiribati put all visas from China on hold and required new arrivals to fill in a health form and travellers from countries with the COVID-19 outbreaks to go through a self-quarantine period. Despite not having any cases, on 28 March, President
Taneti Maamau declared a state of emergency. On 10 September, the government announced it would keep the borders closed until the end of the year to keep the country free of the virus. Some exceptions would be made, including repatriations, humanitarian flights and the transport of essential supplies into the country. A group of 20
I-Kiribati people in the
Marshall Islands were the first set to be repatriated. On 19 November, the government repatriated 62 citizens, who had been stranded abroad since February, on a chartered
Fiji Airways flight. Upon arrival, residents underwent a mandatory 14-day quarantine at
Bikenibeu,
Tarawa.
2021 By 15 May 2021, Kiribati had repatriated 1,400 I-Kiribati stranded abroad without importing any positive cases. The pandemic led to the loss of I-Kiribati seafarers' jobs because of the requirement to present a negative PCR test to return to work, and a lack of a machine to perform tests in Kiribati. On 18 May 2021, President Taneti Maamau announced the first positive case, a local seafarer returning from
Papua New Guinea on a ship quarantined in
Betio port. Two days later, a second positive case was detected on the same ship. The same day, a curfew was imposed. On 25 May, the repatriation program was suspended to deal with positive cases. Minister of Health, Dr. Tinte Itinteang, reported that a second I-Kiribati fisherman had been identified and had recovered. Days later, the first international commercial flight in almost two years - a
charter flight run by the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from
Fiji - landed in Kiribati. On 28 January, the government extended its lockdown for another week as cases rose rapidly in the community. Government officials also tested positive for the virus and worked remotely. On 31 January, Kiribati reported a total of 364 cases (324 in the community, 42 imported cases). In response, the Kiribati Government extended its state of disaster by another month and also extended the curfew in
Betio,
South Tarawa, and
Buota for another seven days in order to contain the spread of COVID-19. On 1 February, Kiribati reported 169 new cases, bringing the total number to 629. By 22 July, total number of cases in Kiribati was 3,430, with 2,730 recoveries and 13 deaths. Having been closed again because of this outbreak, the border re-opened and restricted flights resumed into Tarawa in June 2022. Scheduled commercial flights were resumed a few weeks later. ==Vaccination==