Disaster-struck Tonga has been dealt a fresh blow after coronavirus cases were detected on the archipelago.
The country will go into lockdown on Wednesday after two port workers helping distribute aid following a volcanic eruption and tsunami tested positive for Covid-19. Their nationalities were not immediately clear.
The urgent announcement by Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni appeared to confirm fears on the Pacific Island that accepting aid following the disaster last month could be a poison chalice, by bringing the pandemic to a nation that had been virus-free.
Drinking water and communications were among the things hit hard by the eruption, which left dozens homeless.
Three people died in Tonga and two in Peru after the tsunami barrelled across the ocean.
Now Tongans will be under severe Covid restrictions, having previously only recorded one case.
Ships and planes from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Britain and China have been delivering aid to the country.
Those nations had promised to drop off their supplies of fresh water and medicine without coming into contact with anybody on the ground in Tonga, which usually requires incoming travellers to spend three weeks in quarantine.
The potential threat was emphasised by dozens of sailors aboard the Australian aid ship HMAS Adelaide reporting infections.
Crew members aboard aid flights from Japan and Australia also tested positive.
Matangi Tonga, a local news website, reported that the positive test results came after officials tested 50 front-line workers at the port.
The lockdown is open-ended, the site said, with updates expected from health officials every two days.
Tonga and several other small Pacific nations, including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands, were among the last places on the planet to have avoided any Covid outbreaks, thanks to their remote locations and strict border controls.
The country had reported just a single case when a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionary returning from Africa tested positive in October, after flying home via New Zealand.
But that has changed in the last few weeks as their defences appeared no match against the highly contagious Omicron variant.
The lockdown in Tonga comes as many homes and businesses remain without internet access after the tsunami severed the sole fibre-optic cable that connects the country to the rest of the world.
Officials are hoping repairs will be completed within a week or two.
About 61% of Tonga’s 105,000 people are fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.
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MORE : Tonga hit by 6.2 magnitude earthquake two weeks after devastating volcanic eruption
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