The roll out of second doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 12 – 17 year olds will start in schools tomorrow, Dr ‘Ofa Tukia from the Ministry of Health confirmed today.

At least 13,119 (95%) people out of the target 13,783 of 12-17 year olds and pregnant women have been inoculated with first doses and 5 had received their second dose as at November 23.

For those aged 18 and over, around 60,082 (95%) of the eligible population of 63,128 have received first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, while 45,076 (71%) have received second doses.

This means, out of Tonga’s 105,924 total population, 73,201 people (69%) have now received first doses of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine and 45,081 (43%) are fully vaccinated.

At least 28 percent of Tonga’s population is not yet eligible for the vaccines, including infants and under 12-year-olds.

Meanwhile, repatriation flights to Tonga are expected to resume next year. Previously, the government has allowed repatriation flights from countries or cities that have no COVID-19 community transmission.

However, the government has said that once 70% (74,147) of the total population is fully vaccinated, repatriation flights from countries that have COVID-19 community transmission will begin.

The last repatriation flight to Tonga was on October 27 from Christchurch, New Zealand.