Six deaths from COVID-19 in Tonga have been confirmed, while another five people with the virus died from underlying illnesses, the Minister for Health, Hon Dr Saia Piukala said today, March 29.

The confirmation comes after representatives from the SPC and World Health Organization arrived in Tonga earlier this month and worked with the Ministry of Health to determine the COVID-19 positive death criteria.

The Minister said the criteria is consistent with other Pacific countries and the cause of deaths were confirmed after their meeting yesterday.

They reported there were 297 new COVID-19 cases recorded yesterday, March 28, with 3,241 active cases, and 2,889 recovered. A total of 6,144 positive cases have been recorded so far in Tonga.

There had been a total of 162 cases recorded in Vava’u, 89 had recovered while 73 were active cases.

Hon. Dr Piukala said in Ha’apai another 38-people tested positive to the virus in MIQ. He said 16 out of the 29 people that were positive last week had since tested negative.

Only a small number of the positive cases in Vava’u and Ha’apai were reported to have mild symptoms.

COVID-19 figures

Meanwhile, in answer to questions, the Ministry of Health said the discrepancies in the COVID-19 figures posted on the Ministry of Health facebook page on March 27 were due to the number of deaths.

Health’s Dr Toakase Fakakovikaetau said people had been querying their figures on their facebook page. She said Health had reported only two deaths since March 11 up to today.

“We were lucky that the consultants we had requested a while ago were allowed to come on a repatriation flight to Tonga.”

“They helped us assess the deaths that occurred from 10 March. It was not an easy meeting. Determining whether a person died from COVID-19 is not an easy job.”

The majority of the six that were confirmed to die from COVID-19 were elderly and the rest had underlying illnesses “but due to COVID it accelerated their deaths,” she said.

Dr Fakaviketau said the other five deaths were confirmed to be caused from their underlying illnesses. They were admitted to hospital due to other illnesses and when they were tested, they were already positive for the virus. (6 +5 =11)

“Whenever there is a death of a COVID-19 positive person, the committee has to meet so we can update this data to be as accurate as possible.”

“We need to count everyone that is positive.”

On March 27 the Facebook figures stated that there were a total of 3164 active cases, but the numbers presented added up to 3174, a discrepancy of 10 cases.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Booster shots in Tonga has increase to 49% of the target population over the age of 12.

Minister for Health, Hon Dr Saia Piukala said around 30,000 booster shots has been provided.

Around 98% of the target population have had their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 90% have had their second doses.

With the 50,000 plus Pfizer vaccines arriving in Tonga last week, Hon Dr Piukala said the vaccination program will roll out to the outer islands soon.

Contact Tracing App

The Ministry of Health is testing a contact tracing app that can be downloaded on smart phones before it will be available to the public.

Head of IT, Walter Hurrell said the testing app will advise those who are confirmed as a close contact of someone who tested positive to COVID-19.

He confirmed no other information on a person’s phone can be accessed by this app apart from their phone number.