COVID-19 has now infected 3,006 counties across the United States

The coronavirus has now infiltrated every county in the United States, including the smallest – a remote Hawaiian island of less than 100 people that was home to a leper colony.

Kalawao County, which is so remote that it refuels by barge once a year, recorded its first case of COVID-19 in December, nearly a year after the deadly virus first appeared in the United States in Snohomish County near Seattle, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The tiny enclave on the island of Molokai was created in 1865 for patients with leprosy – now known as Hansen’s disease – who would be exiled there for life, according to the newspaper, which examined Johns’ data. Hopkins and various states for his report.

Hawaiian health officials had taken action to seal the settlement after seeing the disease spread through U.S. nursing homes early last year – and authorities have banned visits to the county to protect its five patients remnant of Hansen, whose average age is 86, according to the Journal.

Some of the five have serious underlying health conditions that put them at high risk for serious complications or death from the coronavirus, said Glenn Wasserman, Hawaii health official.

But the isolated county finally registered its first case after a resident returned from a trip to Honolulu after taking a COVID-19 test. The person, who had no symptoms, then tested positive, the Journal reported.

The virus did not spread, however, as the person and three close contacts from the same flight immediately went into quarantine.

“To me that person was a hero, because they were honest, and they reported it, and they followed the quarantine rules when they returned from outside the colony,” Wasserman told the newspaper.