The two men tested positive this week in Nuku’alofa worked in the port of the capital, where humanitarian aid flows from around January 15th.
Le Monde with AFP
The Tonga Islands will come into confinement, Wednesday, February 2, because of the detection of two cases of Covid-19, a new blow for this kingdom of the Pacific that is struggling to recover from the volcanic eruption and tsunami devastating from mid-January, officials announced.
This island nation was for the moment one of the few places of the planet to have been spared by the virus, but the Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said that the two men tested positive this week in Nuku’alofa had worked in the port of the capital, where humanitarian aid flow from all over the world since January 15th. The volcanic eruption, one of the most important recorded for decades, covered the Tonga of Toxic ash, causing the death of three people.
One case of COVID-19 in October 2021
The archipelago closed its borders at the beginning of 2020, due to the pandemic caused by the coronavirus. Since then, this country of 100,000 people had registered only one CVIV-19 case, that of a man arrived from New Zealand in October 2021 and who has always returned.
After volcanic eruption and tsunami, Australian, New Zealand, American, French and British marine ships delivered help. All deliveries were made in accordance with strict “non-contact” protocols to keep the virus remotely.
m. Sovaleni said that the two touched men were asymptomatic and doubly vaccinated, like about 85% of the Tonga population.
The Australian ship Hmas Adelaïde gave last week in Nuku’alofa to unload help, while twenty members of his crew were contaminated with the virus.