Tongan sports teams still trying to leave China [1]
Friday, February 14, 2020 - 22:44. Updated on Monday, February 17, 2020 - 14:42.
By Eleanor Gee and Linny Folau
Tonga's Acting MInister of Health is hopeful that four Tongan sports teams in China will be permitted to evacuate to London where they may be quarantined for 14-days before returning to Tonga, and approval for the move is being sought from the UK Government.
MEIDECC Minister Hon Poasi Tei, who is also Acting Minister for Health, said on February 13, they were still waiting for approval.
“At this stage, there has been no confirmation from the UK Government for our sports teams to go there. Tonga’s High Commissioner in London has contacted them but we are waiting on a reply. There has been no official yes, at this stage,” he said.
The Minister said, if approval from the UK was extended, then the Tonga Government will look at routes out of China for the students.
“The Chinese Government has agreed to pay for the sports teams' airfares to London, while we (Tongan Government) would foot the expenses in London. Once approval is received, evacuation of the sports teams would commence,” he said.
Today
Meanwhile, MEIDECC CEO, Paula Ma’u, told Matangi Tonga this afternoon that so far there has been no approval from the UK Government.
He said that the UK Travel Advisory states Tongan passport holders can be issued with a visa on arrival, but the UK Health Minister has the authority to deny entry to travellers from China, which could be “due perhaps for secured isolation facility (for 14 days), that’s why we need approval from [UK] Foreign Affairs”.
Tonga has an embassy in London and the sports team would be well supported there if they were given approval to be quarantined for 14-days.
Meanwhile, some members of the swimming team have missed swim competitions in New Zealand this month.
Noelani Day (16) and Andrew Emberson Lapuka (22) are aiming to represent Tonga at the Oceania Championships in June, which is an Olympic qualifier event.
Vila Day, mother of Noelani, told Matangi Tonga that in order for the swimmers to keep fit for future competitions, they are focusing on strength training and gym work.
She said it has also provided them with a productive way of dealing with this difficult situation, while also remaining fit and staying healthy.
However, Vila has found the situation to be very distressing and unsettling.
“Although we are grateful to the Chinese government for taking care of them there as best as they can, we see the situation deteriorating day by day. The number of infections and deaths keep going up the longer we wait.”
“I am extremely concerned for our swim team, because they are the closest team to the epicenter of the virus. They are in Changsha (Hunan Province), which borders Hubei Province (where Wuhan is), and therefore the closest team to Wuhan. The other teams are in Kunming (Yunnan Province) and Hongge (Sichuan Province), but of course, disease knows no borders, so everyone is at risk.”
She has been in contact with the Tongan government regularly providing a variety of options to bring the teams home.
“As a parent, and especially as a mother, I think it is in our nature to do everything possible when we know our children are in danger. If one door shuts, then we look for another, or a window, but we will never stop knocking and looking for solutions to help them. After all, this is a global crisis now, and our children are stranded at the very center of it.”
However, she is happy that the government is trying to bring back the teams via London.
Consistent
Meanwhile, in Tonga's capital, misinformation has reportedly, as of yesterday, been circulating that this evacuation route to London had been confirmed, which raised parents’ expectations that their children would be evacuated this weekend.
Another issue is that Government needs to improve its chain of communication and accessibility in releasing consistent information in a timely manner to media, as the novel coronavirus outbreak continues to rise.
As at 7:53am today, 14 February, there has been a total of 60,364 confirmed cases of COVID-19 according to the Johns Hopkin's University [2]. There have been 1,370 deaths with 2 deaths outside China, while 6,292 have recovered inside and outside China.