Thought of the Day - January 19 2022 - The Kingdom of Tonga

As we have mentioned previously on the blog, due to its unique geographic location and underdeveloped tourist industry (188th in the world in terms of tourists to a country, just ahead of places like Somalia, South Sudan and a few other island nations - even North Korea has a larger tourist industry) Tonga managed to stave off any cases of COVID until late last year (highlighted on the monthly timeline /covid-19/timeline-all ). The Tongans, that number a little over 100,000, have reported only a single person as having COVID; this person has since recovered.

As you have probably seen, a number of islands in the Tongan archipelago were devastated by tidal waves and the fallout from the ash cloud from the massive undersea eruption of the nearby Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano. Three people are reported to have died, but there are still a number of people to be accounted for across some of the 36 inhabited islands. Aid efforts from New Zealand and Australia are underway but the level of ash at the Nuku’alofa airport on the main island, Tongatapu, is making things difficult.

From a COVID perspective, dropping relief packages from the air or landing supplies at the main airport is unlikely to cause issues. Unfortunately, this much-needed foreign effort requires people to be dispatched, for example, to repair infrastructure. Despite 70% vaccination levels, it looks like Omicron is coming to Tonga. The government has held talks with the Australian and New Zealand officials regarding strict protocols for humanitarian workers, the priority being to try to keep the population safe from a “tsunami of COVID”.

In some ways from a COVID perspective, the Tongans are lucky. If the volcano had exploded a few months ago then Delta would have already arrived on their shores. As it stands now the challenge is not just the potential effect of Omicron, it is in combination with the number of residents hospitalized and the poor shape of the infrastructure. This means any that do succumb to the COVID symptoms may have little in the way of support in the near term.

We wish them all well.

Cheers

Cliff

P.S. There are a number of charities and Go Fund Me sites set up for relief. And if you would like to use your crypto Lord Fusitu'a (Tongan politician and noble of the Realm) can make the arrangements.