Results for Tonga

Petrol, kerosene, and diesel prices have increased for February-March starting today, 16 February, as approved by the Tonga Competent Authority.

Tonga’s Declaration of a Health State of Emergency will enter its second year of enforcement, under a monthly renewal starting from 8:00pm today, February 15 to March 15. This means the State of Emergency has been in force for a full year, since it was first declared on 12 March 2020.

A new classroom building for Holonga Government Primary School was commissioned on February 11, under a recovery program for schools damaged by Tropical Cyclone Gita in 2018.

107 passengers were repatriated to Tonga on a chartered flight from Australia this afternoon. A group of seasonal workers also departed Tonga on the same flight.

A repatriation flight will bring around 122 passengers to Tonga tomorrow from Brisbane, Australia. Other flights scheduled for 25 February have been postponed to arrive in Tonga on March 3.

The forgery trial against a current Cabinet Minister and People’s Representative to Parliament ‘Akosita Lavulavu, and her husband, a former Cabinet Minister, ‘Etuate is now expected to start in April.

Tonga could receive the CoViD-19 vaccine “maybe at the end of the first quarter or beginning of the second quarter of the year,” the Ministry of Health Acting CEO, Dr Reynold ‘Ofanoa, said today, 9 February. Home quarantine was no longer allowed, because 27 people had breached the rules, out of 1,624 repatriates.

Forecast maps for Tropical Depression 09F were released by the Fua'amotu Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre at 1:00pm today, Tuesday. TD09F is forecast to enter Tongan waters tonight as a Category 1 Tropical Cyclone.

Tonga has joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), becoming its 84th member at an official flag raising ceremony held at the AIIB headquarter in Beijing, China, on 5 February. The AIIB was established in 2016 with $100 billion capital. It was created with the purpose of serving as a regional financing tool for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative.