An Australian official says a warship delivering aid to Tonga was not the source of a COVID-19 outbreak, as the number of cases rises to five.
Humanitarian aid supplies being unloaded at Fua'amotu International Airport, Tonga, Monday, 24 January, 2022.Australian defence chiefs on Wednesday said a warship delivering aid to Tonga was not the source of an outbreak that has plunged the previously coronavirus-free Pacific kingdom into lockdown.
Australia, New Zealand, the United States, China, France, Fiji and Britain have all sent ships carrying relief supplies including drinking water, medical kits and engineering equipment. Australian Defence Force operations chief, Lieutenant General Greg Bilton, said the Nuku'alofa outbreak "doesn't appear to have evolved from the Adelaide".Lieutenant Bilton said the warship, which has recorded 51 COVID-19 cases among its 630-strong crew since leaving Brisbane last month, berthed in a different area of the harbour from where the two local men were working.
Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni announced late on Tuesday that Tonga would enter a national lockdown at 6pm Wednesday, with the situation reviewed every 48 hours. Until this week, it had recorded just one case of COVID-19, a man who returned from New Zealand last October and has since fully recovered.
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