It is an archipelago of volcanic soil located in the Pacific between New Zealand and Hawaii, the Cook Islands. The premature closure of their borders and a practical home signage system freed them from the pandemic. In 2021 they will receive tourists again.

Cautious, the authorities of the Cook Islands, located on the Pacific, decided to apply very harsh restrictions to contain the entry of the coronavirus into their territory: they closed their borders to all travelers except for those from New Zealand, a country of which they are a free state associated.

They have a population of 17,500 people and with this measure they managed to preserve it from Covid-19, despite the fact that tourism is a fundamental part of the economy of these volcanic islands: Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Mangala, Aitu, Manuae, Mauke, Mitiaro, Palmerston Island , Takutea, Manihiki, Nassau, Penrthyn Island (or Tongareva), Pukapuka, Rakahanga and Suwarrow. In addition, this Maori paradise is reputed to be the cheapest archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, which added to its natural beauty makes it very attractive to travelers from all over the world.

The precautionary measures adopted, added to the fact of its geographical location, make it an earthly paradise even more than it is, since it is the only country free of coronavirus at this time. And they did this with a simple system that was implemented both to protect the health and to ensure the safety of residents. the use of flags installed in front of houses, designed to communicate messages related to the virus to the rest of the residents.

Those who place a white flag, warn that medical assistance is needed there, while a red one indicates that in that house there is a person from the family with a confirmed case of Covid-19. The orange ones show that there is an elderly or high-risk person in that household; and finally yellow, indicates that the house is under a controlled quarantine.

Fortunately, the red flag was never necessary because it prevented the landing of the many cruise ships that constantly arrive. In any case, the first international commercial flights have already been announced and without mandatory quarantine. In this way, the Cook Islands, which are located halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii, joins the few places in the world where Covid-19 has not proliferated: Tuvalu, Tonga, Samoa, Palau, Niue, Nauru , Micronesia, Kiribati, Turkmenistan and North Korea.