The repatriation flights that were scheduled to arrive in Tonga at the end of this year have been "all deferred to next year", MEIDECC CEO Paula Ma'u confirmed to Matangi Tonga this morning.

To date, Paula said 3,122 people have been repatriated to Tonga since the border restrictions began in March 2020.

The last arrivals were three weeks ago. The 215 repatriates from Christchurch, including the COVID-19 case who was later confirmed as a historical case, have been released from quarantine after testing negative to COVID-19 in their last round of tests, confirmed the Ministry of Health today.

Chief Medical Officer for Public Health, Dr Reynold ‘Ofanoa said all passengers and frontliners who were quarantined together, were released yesterday.

Tonga went into a week-long lockdown following the confirmation of Tonga’s first COVID-19 positive case, among the passengers repatriated from Christchurch on October 27.

After it was confirmed that no community transmission was detected, the lockdown ended. Tonga has reverted back to the national restrictions directions, with curfews starting from 12:00 midnight until 5:00am.