Tsunami-hit Tonga will go into a nationwide lockdown on Wednesday after two port workers tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday in the South Pacific island nation.
Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni told a press conference on Tuesday evening that Tonga will begin a nationwide lockdown at 6 p.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Wednesday after the island nation recorded two Covid-19 positive cases among frontliners handling incoming aid shipments.
The two cases were discovered when Tonga’s Health Ministry tested 50 frontliners who had been working at the port of Nuku’alofa, Tonga’s capital, with aid shipments arriving in the island nation following the January 15 volcanic eruption and tsunami caused by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano.
The two cases are the first confirmed community transmissions in Tonga, and the two men are currently isolated, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Tonga reported its first positive Covid-19 case in 2021, following the arrival of an Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch, New Zealand, but this case was deemed historical.
Tonga, an island nation of around 100,000 people, is now facing its first Covid-19 lockdown before full telcommunications are restored, and businesses and homes are without working internet.
The international community is sending relief supplies to Tonga after the island nation was hit by a violent eruption and tsunami that killed at least three people and injured many more. To prevent Covid-19 from entering Tonga, emergency supplies from other countries were delivered in Tonga via contactless delivery.
Tonga has kept its borders closed since March 2020, while a national vaccination campaign has fully vaccinated over 83% of the eligible population (nearly 60% of the total population) against Covid-19 until January 6, 2022. This means that 64,047 people are protected against Covid-19 out of a total of 76,911 eligible people over the age of 12.
Meanwhile, at least 96%, or 73,938 of Tonga’s eligible population, have received their first vaccine dose.
