Tonga awaits result of COVID-19 test [1]
Saturday, March 7, 2020 - 15:59. Updated on Saturday, March 7, 2020 - 16:05.
Samples, taken from a suspected coronavirus COVID-19 case in Tonga this week, arrived in Australia yesterday, Friday, and are on their way to a Melbourne laboratory for testing.
Ministry of Health CEO, Dr Siale ‘Akau'ola said this afternoon that once the result becomes available there will be a public notice issued in Tonga.
“The result is not ready yet. Its travel path to the Lab is a bit longer than anticipated,” said Dr 'Akau'ola. “The specimen arrived in Sydney yesterday and it will be couriered to the laboratory at Melbourne today for testing. Lab staff are on standby to test it once it arrives.”
A 21-year-old Tongan woman travelled while sick with the flu from Sydney to Tonga on Monday, 2 March, and presented herself to the hospital on Wednesday. Health officials suspected she may have contracted COVID-19 while travelling overseas, but testing cannot be done in Tonga and a specimen had to be sent to Australia.
“Unfortunately, we don't have any control on procedures used by private courier services. On the other hand, this is actually fast, compared to our usual specimens in the past to test for other infections like measles, which may take up to a week for results to be available.
“We are talking with WHO to help us get the turn around time for tests to be shorter, especially since this is COVID-19 and not measles!” he said.
Dr ‘Akau'ola said Health staff have already assessed the family of the suspected case as they are the ones that are most at risk of having the virus in Tonga and will monitor them for 14 days to ensure no one in the family are sick and they are self-isolated in their home.
They are also continuing to trace all passengers who were seated near the suspected case on the plane to Tonga on Monday.
“We are still doing all this work even though we don’t know if the test results will confirm she has COVID-19 or not,” he said.