Publisher Health

Tonga will go into lockdown after several cases of Covid were recorded in the capital city Nuku’alofa.

Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said on Tuesday that two cases were detected at the port, where humanitarian aid has been arriving following the recent volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Tongan radio station Broadcom FM reported on Wednesday another three cases had been detected in a family.

The South Pacific nation had previously been virus-free.

So far, all aid deliveries there have been handled using contactless protocols to stop the virus spreading.

In a national address late on Tuesday, Mr Sovaleni said Tonga would enter lockdown from 6PM local time (0500 GMT) Wednesday, with the situation reviewed every 48 hours.

“The most important issue at the moment is to slow down and stop those who have been affected,” he said, adding that “no boat will be allowed to go from one island to another, no more (domestic) aeroplane flights”.

Drew Havea, chair of the Civil Society Forum of Tonga, said: “We assume the worst, that there are going to be more.

“I think the hope now is that we all stick together and find out how big this thing is for Tonga,” he told the BBC from Nuku’alofa.

The remote island nation was one of the few places in the world to escape relatively unscathed from Covid, after it closed its borders to the outside world in early 2020.

But after a volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami that devastated the nation, Tonga has been heavily dependent on foreign aid – led by countries like Australia and New Zealand – for supplies of fresh drinking water, shelter kits and rescue equipment.

Authorities had stressed the need for all foreign aid deliveries to be handled using strict “no-contact” protocols, including leaving humanitarian supplies in isolation for three days before they are handled by Tongans.

Last week however, a Covid outbreak hit the HMAS Adelaide – a crucial Australian relief ship bound for the island nation – infecting 23 of the estimated 600 crew members.

The ship eventually docked at the capital’s port. The Tongan government is investigating but says it does not believe there is a link to the vessel.

The ship will take back samples from the Tongan cases so that an Australian health facility can assess the strain and find out which country it came from.

At least 83% of Tonga’s 106,000 strong population have received double doses of the Covid vaccine. However, the remoteness of some of these island communities, many with limited healthcare resources, makes them particularly vulnerable to an outbreak.