Tonga is looking for an incremental border re-opening in August, said MEIDECC CEO Paula Ma’u today, and the good news is that the government may hand back bookings to the airlines from 14 July.

"Still target for an incremental open border next month, in stages starting off with zero MIQ policy, provided processing of repatriates for the next three-weeks are satisfactory, and again as assessed by the Ministry of Health," he said.

The zero MIQ policy is expected to start in August.

Until then the quarantine and isolation period is three-days.

“With commercial, we may start from the 14 July flight onwards giving it to the airlines, but we still determine the repatriation dates for now, until it is fully open up,” he said.

Meawhile, there are only two repatriation flights this week, arriving on 7 July from Australia and New Zealand, with over 300 passengers.

For last week's repatriation flights, there was a total of 486 passengers from New Zealand, Australia and Fiji.

They were accommodated at Makeke, Kupesi and Tanoa Hotels, and some were home quarantined. A few tested positive, he said.

Cases

Meanwhile, Tonga’s COVID-19 cases continues to decline, with only 155 active as of 26 June, according to the latest figures issued by the Ministry of Health.