covid-19 pandemic in the british indian ocean territory covid-19 pandemic in the british indian ocean territory the covid-19 pandemic in the british indian ocean territory is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2). the virus was confirmed to have reached diego garcia of the british indian ocean territory in november 2020. covid-19 pandemic in the british indian ocean territorydiseasecovid-19virus strainsars-cov-2locationbritish indian ocean territoryfirst outbreakwuhan, hubei, chinaarrival datenovember 2020confirmed cases5suspected cases‡0recovered2deaths0‡suspected cases have not been confirmed by laboratory tests as being due to this strain, although some other strains may have been ruled out. part of a series on thecovid-19 pandemicin the united kingdom, british overseas territories and crown dependencies history responses legislation statistics (part of the global covid-19 pandemic) locations london countries england scotland wales northern ireland crown dependencies guernsey isle of man jersey british overseas territories anguilla akrotiri and dhekelia bermuda british indian ocean territory british virgin islands cayman islands falkland islands gibraltar montserrat saint helena, ascension and tristan da cunha turks and caicos islands pitcairn islands british overseas territories without confirmed cases british antarctic territory south georgia and the south sandwich islands timelines united kingdom january-june 2020 july–december 2020 january-june 2021 july–december 2021 january-june 2022 july-december 2022 2023 england january-june 2020 july–december 2020 2021 2022 scotland 2020 2021 2022 wales 2020 2021 2022 northern ireland 2020 2021 2022 key topics healthcare vaccination temporary hospitals covid passports responses government response contract controversies lockdown public inquiry contact tracing military (domestic, overseas) impacts society economy education politics retail covid-19 portal category background on 12 january 2020, the world health organization (who) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in wuhan city, hubei province, china, which was reported to the who on 31 december 2019. the case fatality ratio for covid-19 has been much lower than sars of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll. from 19 march 2020, public health england no longer classified covid-19 as a "high consequence infectious disease". timeline november 2020 in november 2020, the first case of covid-19 was confirmed at diego garcia. december 2020 in december 2020, the second case, a close contact of the first case, was confirmed. may 2021 in may 2021, three more cases were confirmed from a flight. the personnel arrived at the island in april.