Tonga’s National Management Emergency Committee has postponed a repatriation flight from Australia after a lockdown was announced for Brisbane today.
One-hundred and 28 people were expected to arrive on the flight from Brisbane on Friday.
There are 10 new cases of coronavirus in Queensland, four of those locally acquired, with Greater Brisbane to go into a three-day lockdown from this afternoon (5pm Brisbane time).
MEIDECC CEO Paula Mau said the Ministry of Health has advised that it’s best to postpone the Australia flight until further notice in order to protect the country from the coronavirus.
Mau said both flights from New Zealand and Fiji scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday will arrive as expected.
A Lulutai Airlines flight chartered by the Latter Day Saints Church will repatriate 25 people including church members and Tongans stranded in Fiji.
A total of 102 people are expected to arrive in Tonga on a repatriation flight from Auckland on Wednesday.
Ninety of the passengers were stranded after an earlier repatriation flight was cancelled when Auckland went into lockdown on 3 March.
Tonga remains Covid-19 free.
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