For more than two years, the Pacific archipelago nation of Tonga has been isolated from the rest of the world, helping to stop Covid-19.

But last month’s volcanic eruption and tsunami brought much-needed fresh water and medicine, as well as external deliveries of the virus.

Now the country is in an unrestricted lockdown, which residents hope will help curb small outbreaks that won’t last long.

“We have very limited resources and our hospital is very small,” Tongan business owner Paula Taumoepeau said on Friday. “But I’m not sure any health system can cope. We’ve been lucky that we had two years of pretty high vax rates and we were locked down pretty quickly.”

Tonga is just one of several Pacific countries to experience its first outbreak in the past month. All have limited medical resources and fears that the remote areas that once protected them may now make it difficult for them to help.

“Obviously when your country already has a very strained and fragile health system, when you have an emergency or a disaster and then you have the potential to introduce a virus, that makes an already serious situation immeasurably worse.” John Fleming, head of health for the Red Cross Asia Pacific.

On January 15, Tonga was blanketed in volcanic ash after the massive undersea Hunga Tonga Hungaha Apai volcano erupted, followed by a tsunami.

Only three people have been confirmed dead, but several small settlements on outlying islands have been wiped off the map and ash has contaminated much of the drinking water.

The country of 105,000 has only reported one case of COVID-19 since the pandemic began – a missionary from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who returned to the island from Africa via New Zealand tested positive in October – and authorities debate whether Let international aid come in.

They decided they had to, but despite strict precautions to unload boats and planes from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK and China, two Tongan men working at the capital’s Queen Salute Wharf tested positive on Tuesday.

“Tonga has not had much luck this year,” said Samiula Funua, chairman of the state-owned company Tonga Cable Co Ltd, which owns the only fibre-optic cable connecting the country to the rest of the world. “We desperately need some good news.”

According to the local Mattangi Tonga news site, the two were quarantined, but of the 36 possible contacts tested, one wife and two children also tested positive, while the others tested negative.

It is unclear how many people may have come into contact with the dockworkers, but the government has released a list of places where the virus may have spread, including a church, several shops, a bank and a kindergarten.

Complete News Source : Hindustan Times