I.n the island state of Tonga in the South Pacific, the first registered corona case triggered a run on the vaccination centers. Friday and Saturday have been “the best” days of the vaccination campaign so far, said the national vaccination coordinator Afu Tei on Saturday. “Almost 2000 last night and today, as you can see, the turnout is very good.”
On Thursday, a passenger on board a return flight from the New Zealand city of Christchurch tested positive for Corona. The result was announced on Friday, the 215 people on board the machine were still in quarantine.
Tonga’s Prime Minister Pohiva Tuionetoa warned islanders on Saturday to prepare for a possible lockdown if more cases emerged. However, there is no immediate need for action, since it could take “more than three days” for corona infected people to become contagious. “We should use this time to prepare for the eventuality that more people will be infected with the virus.”
The kingdom in the Pacific, about 1,800 kilometers northeast of New Zealand, with around 106,000 inhabitants was one of the few countries that had been spared the virus so far. The interest in a vaccination has so far been rather low. Around a third of the islanders are fully vaccinated.
Health officials confirmed that the infected Tongan was double-vaccinated and received the second dose in mid-October. According to the New Zealand Ministry of Health, he had also tested negative before departure in Christchurch. There are currently four known corona cases in the New Zealand city, all in the same household.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/after-almost-two-years-the-island-state-of-tonga-records-the-first-corona-case/
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