The novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has hit the tourism industry extremely hard, and Caribbean nations are suffering greatly.<br />According to CNN, some islands have closed to visitors to protect their citizens. In doing so, they've severed a key economic lifeline.<br />Others have remained open to tourism, but risk exposing its citizens to a pandemic that has overwhelmed the capabilities of far richer countries.<br />Being an island nation would seem to provide a geographic advantage to preventing the spread of the coronavirus.<br />But in reality, the economies of most islands in the Caribbean rely heavily on the money that tourists bring with them when they come on vacation.<br />Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean, is a good example of what the entire region faces.<br />Restaurants, hotels, AirBnb's, cab drivers, and car rental agencies have seen their revenues drop to virtually zero.<br />And while the island's extensive public health system has flattened the curve of new cases, it's still struggling to completely rid the island of the virus.
