A Vanuatu mother had to deliver her baby at home on the weekend because of a Covid-19 outbreak on Pentecost in Penama province.
RNZ Pacific's Vanuatu correspondent Hilaire Bule reported that Melsisi Health Centre on Pentecost was prevented from delivering babies because the Penama health team was using the facility for Covid-19 testing.
They discovered the Covid outbreak on Friday when 77 students at the island's Ranwadi Secondary School tested positive.
The mother successfully delivered her baby at home - only about 300 metres from the Melsisi Health Centre - with help from a traditional midwife but without the aid of the medical centre's nurses.
The Penama Province area secretary, Eslyn Mabon, said with no hospital on Pentecost health teams have had to use medical clinics for Covid testing.
Health officials had not determined how the virus reached Pentecost since a nationwide lockdown preventing travel between the islands of Vanuatu began more than a month ago when Covid-19 was first detected in Port Vila and Luganville.
Phorto file