Results for Pacific Islands

Progress has been slow today, Monday, in the search for the Fiji end of Tonga's submarine telecommunications cable - suspected to be broken in several places. Bad weather and rough seas persist in the area. The cable repair ship Reliance recovered the Tonga end of the international cable over the weekend, and secured it at 7:00am Saturday. The ship also recovered a 1.2km long piece of separated submarine cable.

Two new COVID-19 positive cases, bring the active number to seven for Tonga, Prime Minister Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni, told a Sunday afternoon press conference. The 48-hours national lockdown, which expired today at 6:00pm, has been extended for 14-days for Tongatapu and Vava’u, as testing and vaccinations are continued.

Aotearoa New Zealand is donating an additional 9,300 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to Tonga, and $3 million in humanitarian funding. A Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules has departed Base Auckland Whenuapai earlier today, Feb. 5, carrying the vaccines, rapid antigen tests, and equipment to support re-establishing the electrical network.

Tonga's broken submarine telecommunications cable is not where it is supposed to be. A search last night by an ROV from the cable boat Reliance, could not locate the break, after it arrived in the area yesterday. By Linny Folau.

Breaking news: Tonga has recorded its first two COVID-19 positive cases today, among the front liners handling incoming cargo shipments, Tonga's Prime Minister announced in a urgent press conference at 9:00pm. tonight, Tuesday. Tonga now faces its first COVID-19 lockdown before full telcommunications have been restored, and businesses and homes and communities are left without working internet.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has provided Tongan communities with more than half a million litres of fresh water and continues to transport much-needed aid to Tonga with a fourth Hercules flight scheduled tomorrow, Tuesday.

When Tongatapu’s small business community met on Thursday Jan. 27, to discuss their concerns, amid an unfolding national catastrophe, following volcanic eruptions and devastating tsunamis, they slumped in chairs and their faces showed how seriously concerned, worried, exhausted and frustrated they are. But after all of that, what's really destroying them is the total failure of Tonga's international communications two weeks ago. Tonga's telecommunications authorities have put spectrum licensing roadblocks around the local private sector's ability to find relief in a commercial satellite broadband service solution. By Mary Lyn Fonua.

“We were lucky that it was daylight when the tsunami happened and we fled to higher grounds,” said ‘Aliki Moavuka (53), a school principal, on the outer island of Fonoifua, one of the worst affected by the natural disaster in the Ha’apai Group.

Eleven people on Pangaimotu Island climbed into a fau tree as tsunamis ravaged the coast of the low-lying atoll on Jan. 15, following the massive explosion at Hunga volcano.