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Thursday 26 March 2020 5:26pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : Tonga's Ministry of Health has negated public concerns that Tongans had returned to the Kingdom from New Zealand after attending a Mt Roskill event with a person who later tested positive for COVID-19. -
Thursday 26 March 2020 5:12pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : Tonga's Heilala Festival 2020 has been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Thursday 26 March 2020 5:06pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : 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. Premium content -
Thursday 26 March 2020 4:34pm
Suva, Fiji : Fakamolemole pe kae tu’u atu e ki’i tohi ni na’a a’u atu ai homau le’o ki hotau ki’i Pule’anga. - Leonaitasi Taukafa. -
Wednesday 25 March 2020 10:04pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : Tonga’s Legislative Assembly will have a soft closing for its 2019/20 session on March 26, without guests due to the coronavirus preventative measures. -
Wednesday 25 March 2020 6:40pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : 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. -
Wednesday 25 March 2020 5:52pm
Tokyo, Japan : The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 has been postponed to next year while the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates globally. Meanwhile, Tongan athlete Pita Taufatofua is delivering live workouts from home, streamed on the Olympic Channel. Premium content -
Tuesday 24 March 2020 6:42pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : Tonga’s Appeal Court for the first time in Nuku'alofa, conducted hearings via video teleconference on March 23, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Premium content -
Tuesday 24 March 2020 6:30pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : Distaquaine Pele Tu‘ihalamaka is the new Chief Executive Officer for the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, taking up the position from March 23 for four-years. Premium content -
Tuesday 24 March 2020 6:23pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : 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. Premium content -
Tuesday 24 March 2020 1:03pm
Baltimore, USA : It is likely that eventually, CoViD-19 will become endemic (commonly recurring in the community), and most of us will get infected, says Justin Lessler, an associate professor of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States, stressing that it is most important to slow the speed of transmission. -
Tuesday 24 March 2020 7:52am
Cambridge-MA, USA : 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. -
Monday 23 March 2020 11:35pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : Two weeks without incoming commercial passenger flights to Tonga will give the government valuable time to set up essential measures, including equipment for testing in country for CoViD-19 and protective clothing for health workers, and to train more people for the response to the pandemic, which could hugely impact Tonga. -
Monday 23 March 2020 7:02pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : UPDATED with regulated prices. Tonga's Ministry of Trade warns that price gouging by some businesses in Tonga in the face of the CoViD-19 pandemic will lead to licence cancellations. “The Ministry will be watching businesses in Tongatapu, ‘Eua, Ha‘apai, Vava‘u and the two Niua’s,” they said, responding to public complaints about profiteering off the emergency today. Premium content -
Monday 23 March 2020 6:13pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : 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. Premium content -
Monday 23 March 2020 12:59pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : UPDATED: Tonga has ordered a diversion of international flights to Tonga for two weeks, from 23 March, including the Air New Zealand, Fiji Airways and Talofa Airlines flights scheduled for today. The order was made by Dr Siale ‘Akau’ola, CEO and posted this morning “to prevent the introduction, or spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)” under Tonga's current Declaration of Public Health Emergency. -
Saturday 21 March 2020 4:07pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : 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. Premium content -
Saturday 21 March 2020 3:26pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : A new two-storey office building for Tonga’s Ministry of Tourism, named ‘Api ko Lata‘anga, was officially opened by HRH Princess Pilolevu Tuita on 19 March 2020 behind the Tonga Tourism centre on Hala Vuna, Nuku'alofa. Premium content -
Friday 20 March 2020 6:47pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : Tonga has declared a month-long State of Emergency in Tonga aimed at CoViD-19 prevention stating that the disease “is imminent and will endanger or threaten.. the lives of people in Tonga.”. Starting today at 8:00 pm: Foreign nationals are banned from entering Tonga; Tongan nationals must be quarantined for 14-days upon arrival; public gatherings are restricted; big events including funerals are banned; bars will be closed and other measures are being taken. -
Thursday 19 March 2020 10:46pm
Nuku'alofa, Tonga : Tonga's stunning ngatu provide testimony to the considerable antiquity of Tongan artistic designs. Variation of the ngatu patterns, and the way these are organized, had been inscribed on the surfaces of Lapita pottery in Tonga almost 3,000 years ago. By David V. Burley.
