Australia’s Most Isolated Communities Lock Down to Beat Virus

  • Indigenous towns, tourist islands hoping to become safe havens
  • Native people of North America, Pacific vulnerable to pandemic

Queensland Police stop vehicles at a checkpoint set up at the Queensland and New South Wales border in Coolangatta, Australia, on March 26.

Photographer: Chris Hyde/Getty Images
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The only road into Yarrabah shut at midnight on Thursday.

Like many remote communities across Australia, the town on the tropical far northeast coast is pulling up the drawbridge to stop coronavirus from entering. Only emergency personnel and health workers are allowed in, after their temperatures are checked. Rangers have stepped up sea patrols to stop access by boat.