More COVID-19 cases confirmed as Tonga starts nationwide lockdown

SUVA – Tonga reported three new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total COVID-19 infections to five in the South Pacific island nation, while a nationwide lockdown will start at 6 p.m. local time (0500 GMT) on the same day.

According to Tonga’s news website Matangi Tonga Online, Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni confirmed the new cases on Wednesday afternoon, telling a press conference that all five infected people had been put under quarantine, and some of them began to show symptoms like fever.

Meanwhile, Tonga’s Minister of Health Saia Piukala confirmed that the three new cases included a 29-year-old woman and her two children, all close contacts of the previous two cases.

He said that the highest priority in Tonga now is to find out the close contacts of these positive cases and whom they interacted with since Saturday.

On Tuesday night, the Tongan government confirmed that two COVID-19 positive cases were discovered when the Ministry of Health tested 50 frontliners who had been working at the port of Nuku’alofa, capital of Tonga, with the aid shipments arriving in the country following the volcanic eruption and tsunamis caused by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano on Jan. 15.

Tonga had reported its first positive COVID-19 case last year after an Air New Zealand flight arrived from Christchurch, a city of New Zealand, but this case was deemed to be a historical case.

Read more: WHO recommends countries ease COVID-19 measures “in steady, slow way”

Tonga has maintained border restrictions since March 2020 while a national vaccination campaign has fully vaccinated over 83 percent of the eligible population (about 60 percent of the total population) against COVID-19 up to Jan. 6.

This means 64,047 people out of a total of 76,911 eligible people over the age of 12 years are protected against COVID-19.

Currently, telecommunications are yet to be re-established in most of Tonga, with no outsiders being able to make mobile or phone calls into the Vava’u and Ha’apai group of islands.

Most Tongans will have no internet connectivity at home during this first COVID-19 lockdown to prevent COVID-19 transmission after the recent disaster.  Enditem