Aid to volcano-hit Tonga brings 1st COVID outbreak, lockdown

By DAVID RISING and NICK PERRY
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — For more than two years, the isolation of the Pacific archipelago nation of Tonga helped keep COVID-19 at bay. But last month’s volcanic eruption and tsunami brought outside deliveries of desperately needed fresh water and medicine — and the virus. Tonga is one of several Pacific island countries to experience their first outbreaks over the past month. There is growing concerns that their precarious health care systems might quickly become overburdened, and that the isolation that had protected them may now make helping them difficult. Despite strict precautions unloading ships and planes from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Britain and China, two Tongans handling aid shipments at a wharf were the first to test positive.