Australian defense chiefs yesterday said that a warship delivering aid to Tonga was not the source of an outbreak that has plunged the previously COVID-19-free Pacific kingdom into lockdown.
Residents of the remote island nation, struggling to recover from a deadly volcanic eruption that triggered huge tsunamis, were yesterday ordered to stay at home after two port workers tested positive in the capital, Nuku’alofa.
They were the first community cases recorded in the nation of 100,000 people, with officials later confirming another three family members, including two children, also had the virus and were in isolation.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Commonwealth of Australia Department of Defence
Tongans have feared losing the nation’s virus-free status since foreign ships began delivering humanitarian aid in the wake of the Jan. 15 eruption of the Hunga Ha’apai volcano, which lies about 65km north of Nuku’alofa.
Australia, New Zealand, the US, China, France, Fiji and Britain have all sent ships carrying relief supplies, including drinking water, medical kits and engineering equipment.
Australia’s HMAS Adelaide docked in Nuku’alofa to unload supplies last week, despite a COVID-19 outbreak among its crew.
All offshore deliveries are subject to strict “no-contact” protocols to keep the virus at bay, including leaving goods in isolation for three days before they are handled by Tongans.
The Australian Defence Force’s operations chief, Lieutenant General Greg Bilton, said the Nuku’alofa outbreak “doesn’t appear to have evolved from the Adelaide.”
The warship, which has recorded 51 COVID-19 cases among its 630-strong crew since leaving Brisbane last month, berthed in a different area of the harbor from where the two local men were working, Bilton said.
“We unloaded in a manner that was COVID-friendly, contactless, in line with arrangements made with Tongan officials at the wharf,” Bilton told Sky News Australia.
“So I don’t think there’s any connection, there’s no evidence of that,” he added.
The Tongan government had asked the Australians to take samples from the infected men away for analysis to identify the strain of SARS-CoV-2 and help identify its source, Bilton said.
Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni late on Tuesday announced that Tonga would enter a national lockdown at 6pm yesterday, with the situation reviewed every 48 hours.
Large lines formed at supermarkets in the capital, as residents prepared to hunker down for an extended period.
The stay-at-home order means all businesses and schools must close, with only essential services allowed to operate.
Tonga closed its borders in early 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe.
Until this week, it had recorded just one case of COVID-19, a man who returned from New Zealand in October last year and has since fully recovered.
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