Soldiers load HMAS Adelaide at the Port of Brisbane before departing for Tonga on Thursday. Officials said on Tuesday that nearly two dozen sailors aboard the Adelaide have tested positive for the coronavirus, raising fears they could bring the outbreak to Tonga, which has so far attempted Try to avoid any outbreaks.
Cpl. Robert Whitmore / Australian Defense Force / via AP
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Cpl. Robert Whitmore / Australian Defense Force / via AP
Soldiers load HMAS Adelaide at the Port of Brisbane before departing for Tonga on Thursday. Officials said on Tuesday that nearly two dozen sailors aboard the Adelaide have tested positive for the coronavirus, raising fears they could bring the outbreak to Tonga, which has so far attempted Try to avoid any outbreaks.
Cpl. Robert Whitmore / Australian Defense Force / via AP
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Nearly two dozen sailors aboard an Australian military ship that was transporting aid to Tonga have tested positive for coronavirus, officials said on Tuesday, raising concerns they could bring COVID-19 to a pacific country that has so far managed to avoid any outbreaks.
Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said his government was working with Tongan authorities to keep the ship at sea and ensure there was no threat to Tonga’s 105,000 residents.
Tongan authorities have warned that accepting international aid could lead to a disaster greater than the massive eruption of an undersea volcano 10 days ago. The eruption caused a tsunami that destroyed dozens of homes and the volcanic ash poisoned drinking water.
Since the pandemic began, Tonga has reported only a single case of COVID-19 and has avoided any outbreaks. It is one of the few countries in the world that is currently completely virus-free. About 61% of Tongans are fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.
Australian officials say 23 crew members have been infected on board the HMAS Adelaide leaving Brisbane on Friday.
“They desperately need aid, but they don’t want to risk getting COVID,” Dutton told Sky News. “We’re going to deal with all of that as quickly as we can.”
This is the second aid shipment from Australia, in which at least one crew member has tested positive. A previous C-17 Globemaster military transport plane turned around midway after someone was diagnosed.
Meanwhile, a cable company official said Tonga’s main island could restore internet service within two weeks, although it could take longer to repair connections to the smaller islands. .
The only undersea fiber optic cable connecting the Pacific nation to the outside world was broken after the eruption and tsunami.
That leaves most people unable to connect with loved ones abroad. For days, people were inaccessible by phone, email, or through social media.
Since then, Tonga’s Digicel has been able to restore international call services to some areas using a satellite connection. Some people were able to send emails or have limited Internet connections.
Samieula Fonua, chairman of the board at Tonga Cable Ltd., the state-owned company that owns the fiber-optic line, said a repair vessel had left Papua New Guinea and would stop in Samoa on Monday to pick up the cargo. . It will then arrive in Tonga by February 1.
Fonua said CS Reliance has a crew of about 60 people on board, including engineers, divers and medical staff. Their equipment includes a robot that can assess cables on the seabed, he said.
Fonua said preliminary estimates suggest that the break point is about 23 kilometers from the main island of Tongatapu. He says that all goes well, the crew will be able to repair the cable on February 8, restoring internet to about 80% of Tonga’s customers.
This cable route runs from Tonga to Fiji, a distance of about 500 miles, and was first put into operation in 2013 at a cost of about 16 million USD. It was funded through grants from the World Bank Group and the Asian Development Bank, and increased Tonga’s internet capacity fivefold.
But like many small Pacific nations, Tonga relies heavily on a single cable for connectivity and has little in the way of contingency plans. Three years ago, a cable break attributed to a tugboat also resulted in weeks of disruption.
Second, the inland fiber optic cable connecting the smaller islands of Tonga to the main island could be much more difficult to repair. Fonua said that the cable running near the undersea volcano had erupted and may have been severely damaged. It may need multiple repairs or even replacement, he said.
Fonua said the focus is on fixing the main international cable, and it can handle domestic connections “at a later date”.
He said the Tongans have somewhat understood the disruption of communication caused by the disaster that left three people dead, dozens of homes destroyed and the water supply contaminated by volcanic ash.
“Everybody calm down. Coming out of a complete blackout, just being able to call outside and send an email would have solved it a little bit,” Fonua said. “By the time they’re starting to get more frustrated, I expect we’ll have cables connected by then.”
