Tonga records first case since outbreak of COVID-19

Tonga has recorded its first-ever case of COVID-19 after a traveller from New Zealand tested positive.

Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa, Tonga’s prime minister, said the index case is among 215 passengers who arrived on a flight from the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Wednesday.

The patient, whose details were not revealed, is said to have been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine.

Some of Tonga’s Olympic team officials who got stuck in New Zealand on their way back from the Toyko Olympic Games in August were said to be on the flight.

They had been denied permission to enter Tonga for weeks after COVID-19 cases were detected in New Zealand.

According to local media, Matangi Tonga, the prime minister said the Tongan government will on Monday announce if the country will put restriction measures in place.

Tonga, an island nation with a population of fewer than 200,000, is among one the few countries in the world that have managed to keep the virus out of its shores.

About 31 percent of Tongans are fully vaccinated and 48 percent have had at least one dose.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a total of 84,506 vaccine doses have been administered in Tonga.