Results for COVID-19

The 238 passengers who were repatriated from New Zealand and Samoa on January 14 are negative for CoViD-19 in their first testing.

The first two repatriation flights for 2021, with a total of 238 passengers from Samoa and Auckland, New Zealand, arrived in Tonga this afternoon, 14 January, confirmed Tonga Police.

The Marshall islands was the first country in the Pacific region to have access to a COVID-19 vaccine at the end of December, while The Federated States of Micronesia and Palau expect to receive a vaccine this month. Meanwhile, Tonga and other Pacific countries are waiting to have access to vaccines through the global COVAX initiative, possibly toward the end of 2021.

Tonga’s aim to reach 50% renewable energy by the end of 2021 may be delayed further as border restrictions due to CoViD-19 continues to hinder projects.

All 286 repatriates from Auckland and Fiji who are currently in-home quarantine for seven days will be released in time to join in celebrations welcoming in the New Year, confirmed Tonga's Chief Medical Officer (Public Health) Dr Reynold 'Ofanoa this afternoon.

The nine-months long, national curfews in Tonga have been lifted for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day and shortened for National Prayer Week 2021. The Declaration of a State of Emergency has been extended from 8:00pm today 21 December 2020 to 8:00pm 18 January 2021, including the National CoViD-19 Restrictions with changes.

Tonga is looking to the COVAX Facility to obtain a safe COVID-19 vaccine for Tonga in 2021, the CEO for Ministry of Health, Dr Siale ‘Akau‘ola said today at a press briefing at Vaiola Hospital. Tonga needs to wait for a vaccine that can be stored in the hospital freezers.

The New Zealand Government will purchase COVID-19 vaccines from pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Novavax, meaning every New Zealander will be able to be vaccinated, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “We have secured more than enough doses to cover our entire population plus the Pacific,” she said. Vaccinations for the public are on track to start in mid-2021.

New York Times reporting: While many poor nations may be able to vaccinate at most 20% of their populations in 2021, some of the world’s richest countries have reserved enough doses to immunize their own multiple times over. “The high-income countries have gotten to the front of the line and cleared the shelves,” said Andrea Taylor, a Duke researcher who is studying the coronavirus vaccines contracts. But the outlook for most of the developing world is dire. Because of manufacturing limits, it could take until 2024 for many low-income countries to obtain enough vaccines to fully immunize their populations.