The Australian Government is assisting Pacific Island countries, including Tonga, to prepare and prevent the spread of CoViD-19, and manage health and economic impacts.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison told G20 leaders on 26 March that the Pacific needed to be a focus of international support.

In order to keep the infection rates as low as possible, Australia has closed its borders to non-citizens and non-residents, and banned Australians from travelling overseas.

Pacific islanders transiting through Australia to return home are exempt from their travel ban, while enhanced health screening for passengers flying to the Pacific has been put in place.

“The top priority for our governments right now is to keep infection rates as low as possible.”

In a joint statement by Senator Hon Marise Payne, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Women, Minister for International Development and the Pacific Assistant Defence Minister, they said Australia is already taking steps, as a transit country to much of the region, to facilitate a humanitarian and essential services corridor to the Pacific, and Timor-Leste.

“At the same time, Australia’s high commissions and embassies across the Pacific remain open. We have also worked quickly to ensure essential Australian advisers in health and frontline services have been able to stay and continue their work with Pacific governments.

“We have also been strongly engaged with Pacific partners to prepare for, and prevent, the spread of COVID-19, and to manage the broader health and economic impacts."

Australia is assisting Pacific Island governments with laboratories, medical equipment, health expertise, public information campaigns and support for national preparedness plans and the World Health Organisation’s regional plan.

“Our regional institutions are critical to this response, and we are working closely with the Pacific Islands Forum and the Pacific Community.

“In this unprecedented situation, we have moved quickly to reorient our development partnerships to bring forward funding for critical health services and to mitigate the economic shock.

“No country should be alone in this crisis. Nowhere is this more true than in the Pacific. Australia faces its own immediate challenges, but our support for, and partnership with, our Pacific family is essential for our regional health security and our long-term interests.”