Results for COVID-19

The postponing of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will give Tongan athlete Pita Taufatofua time to improve in his new sport of sprint kayaking and another chance of Olympic qualification in the sport.

Australian Volunteers were flown out of Tonga on a charter flight organised by the Australian Volunteers International (AVI) on 25 March, confirmed the Australian High Commission (AHC) in Tonga today.

Two British medical students have found themselves stuck in Tonga and unable to return home after Tonga closed its borders earlier this week to prevent COVID-19 from entering the country.

All schools in Tonga will be shut down on Friday, March 27 for two weeks, as a precaution against the COVID-19 pandemic. Tonga currently has no confirmed cases.

As the coronavirus pandemic shuts down the world’s economies, stock markets plummet, and unemployment rises, policymakers will be forced to figure out how to contain the outbreak while preventing financial and economic collapse. Most economic proposals in developed countries focus on cash payments to people, deferred tax payments, and business bailouts. But biomedicine is critical to saving the economy ...a simple immunity test could tell us who doesn’t need to be taken out of economic circulation... and impede an economic Armageddon.- Mark Roe.

Many of Tonga's businesses are already facing a cash crunch and looking to scale back their operations, as the impact of the CoViD-19 pandemic bites, the Tonga Chamber of Commerce and Industries (TCCI) stated today. While the National Reserve Bank of Tonga has reassured Tongans that our banking system is strong enough to withstand the impact of CoViD-19, but economic growth will be lower for the year.

The South Pacific Tourism Exchange that was set for May 25-26 in Christchurch has been cancelled due to COVID-19. “We will now realign our resources and efforts to support the post COVID-19 Recovery efforts of our members,” said CEO Christopher Cocker.

All secondary schools in Tonga will add an extra hour to their daily timetable to prepare for a possible school shutdown, amid the COVID-19 global outbreak, the Minister for Education and Training, Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni said today, 19 March. The Secondary Schools Inter-college Sports event due to be held in April has been postponed to November.

The Australian Government today issued a global advice to citizens travelling abroad to consider returning home. This is the country's highest alert level 4. Meanwhile, New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has today told 80,000 Kiwis travelling overseas to get home now - before it's too late.