Kaniva News Commentary
So far Tonga has not had a single confirmed case of Covid-19.
There have been a number of suspected cases and the government quite rightly paused its plan to fly citizens back from Fiji when there was a scare there earlier this week.
However, so far Tonga has escaped the deadly virus that has killed more people in America than the entire population of Tonga.
It is chilling to think that while Tonga’s 103,000 citizens have remained safe, 136,000 Americans have died.
The lack of infection in Tonga can be attributed to a number of factors. Firstly, the government of Hon. Pōhiva Tuʻiʻonetoa took the issue seriously and deployed the kingdom’s limited resources as strategically best it could with the help of international support.
Secondly, people flying back to Tonga have tended to come from island nations which have had very low infection rates, particularly New Zealand where Prime Minister Jacinda Adern led a carefully controlled lockdown to control the spread of the disease.
Thirdly, Tonga is made up of a group of islands and it has been relatively easy to shut down air travel, as it has with the Pacific’s other islands.
However, two pieces of news mean that it is too early to relax and that Tonga needs to be careful
Researchers have announced that Covid-19 has mutated, and the strain now dominating the world may be up to six times more infectious.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US, Dr Anthony Fauci, said while the findings had not been confirmed, they could be significant.
“I think the data is showing that there is a single mutation that actually makes the virus be able to replicate better, and maybe have high viral loads,” he said.
New research also indicates the mutation could jump between humans more easily.
As long as returning passengers on repatriation flights are checked and quarantined when they arrive in Nuku’alofa, Tonga should remain safe.
Back door
However, airports are not the only borders.
While being an island nation has its advantages, it does mean that every island is a potential border – and a potential back door to Tonga.
The kingdom joined other island nations in turning away cruise ships at the beginning of the pandemic.
This saved them from the disaster that happened when infected passengers from the cruise ship Ruby Princess were allowed ashore in Sydney.
Sadly, ship-borne epidemics are not unknown in Polynesia.
In 1918, during the world influenza pandemic, the steamer Talune from Auckland called into Apia and the New Zealand military government allowed its passengers ashore.
As a result, 8000 people – one fifth of Samoa’s population – people died.
As Kaniva News reported earlier this month, an American yacht, the Zatara, was blocked from entering Tongan waters
Lt Commander Siua ‘Ika said the Tongan navy was not initially aware the Zatara was on its way.
It was intercepted by the patrol boat Neiafu, which was patrolling Minerva Reef.
It is believed several yachts are waiting around Tonga’s many coastlines waiting to be allowed in.
While nobody is suggesting that any of the passengers and crew are infected or pose any threat to Tonga, the real concern is that the navy was unaware of the arrival of the Zatara.
Many yachts sail through the central Pacific islands every year, some of them smuggling drugs or bent on other crimes. Nobody knows how many have remained undetected.
As a recent report found, while air security has seen significant improvements, controlling seaborne activity is significantly harder. The area covers millions of square kilometres and inter‐country and agency coordination is necessary to compensate for the shortage of patrol vessels, surveillance aircraft and operating costs.
As conditions continue to deteriorate in the United States and other countries – and as a mutated virus poses a potential new hazard – nobody can tell when somebody may try to flee the infection by sea or where they may try to come ashore.
The risk of this may be small, but six months ago the risk that the world would grind to a halt because of a virus seemed even smaller.
Being a nation of islands has helped to keep Tonga safe from Covid-19, but it could also provide a back door for a mutated virus. Tonga must remain vigilant and this time the navy could be in the frontline of the defence against the pandemic.
