COVID-19

A year ago, 42% (143 respondents) expected to return to pre-COVID revenue levels by 2021, reflecting at the time improved confidence in a more positive outlook. This is in comparison to the most recent survey, where 12 % (106 respondents), remain confident of returning to pre-COVID revenue in 2021 and 50% expecting it in 2022 or later.

The minister, 'Amelia Tu'ipulotu, floated a March reopening next year as the best decision for the safety of the Kingdom.

But repatriation and cargo flights will continue to arrive under special permits.

It comes after this week's news that a woman died in Aotearoa following her Covid-19 vaccination, in which the Health Ministry denies any direct links.

Kaniva Tonga reported the death of a 93-year-old woman after being enoculated, although it's since been linked with her pre-existing heart condition.

The cases are members of one household in Muanikoso, Nasinu.

One of these cases is an employee of Extra Supermarket.

So all five of these cases have been under home quarantine following the discovery of that cluster last week. Contact tracing investigations are ongoing.

The Ministry of Health said their contact tracing for a case announced yesterday from the Vunimono/Nadali cluster has identified him as being a potentially high-risk case for transmission.

He is a driver for a security company and was working up until Wednesday, 19 May.

The Australian carrier also said it would report an annual loss before tax of more than $1.5bn (A$2bn, £1.1bn).

But it added that its debt pile had peaked and was likely to fall as domestic travel was on track to hit pre-pandemic levels.

Qantas said its international division was losing about $2.3m a week, down from $3.9m last month.

Its latest cost-cutting plans include a two-year wage freeze, slashing travel agents' commissions for international flights and offering voluntary redundancies to cabin crew in its international business.

The death toll is expected to rise as rescue operations continue. At least 53 people are still missing.

A navy warship returned to the city's harbour on Wednesday with some of the 186 survivors rescued so far.

Thirty-five people have also been rescued from another of the three other barges stranded due to cyclone Tauktae.

The cyclone weakened after it made landfall on Monday, but at least 19 people are confirmed as having died on land in the storm.

Govind Kant, a Sydney businessman, died on Sunday, his company said.

He had travelled to Delhi in April for family reasons.

Mr Kant is believed to be the second Australian to have died in India amid a temporary travel ban imposed after a devastating second wave. Australian officials are yet to comment.

The three-week ban on Indian arrivals ended on Saturday, but more than 9,000 Australians remain stuck in the country.

They all are from a cluster in the Nadali area of Nausori, near Fiji's capital Suva, a region of the country where a four day lockdown is due to end tomorrow morning.

The new cases bring the number of active cases of Covid-19 in the country to 55. Of these, only four are classified as border cases.

The Health Secretary James Fong announced the new cases tonight, saying that over 2,500 tests for the virus had been conducted in the past day.

Cyclone Tauktae has killed at least 12 people and left a trail of destruction as it brushed past the coastal states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, authorities said.

It is set to make landfall in Gujarat late on Monday.

"This will be the most severe cyclone to hit Gujarat in at least 20 years. This can be compared with the 1998 cyclone that hit Kandla and inflicted heavy damage," state revenue secretary Pankaj Kumar told Reuters.

The cyclone increases pressure on local administrations already struggling with a high caseload of Covid-19 infections.

A two-day IPC workshop was held earlier this month with health care workers at the Prince Ngu Hospital in Vava’u Tonga.

The workshop was organized by the Tongan Ministry of Health IPC team and virtually co-facilitated by the Pacific Community’s (SPC) Public Health Division with support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the European Union (EU).

The panel, set up by the World Health Organization, said the combined response of the WHO and global governments was a "toxic cocktail".

The WHO should have declared a global emergency earlier than it did, its report said, adding that without urgent change the world was vulnerable to another major disease outbreak.

More than 3.3 million people around the world have now died of Covid.

While the US and Europe are beginning to ease restrictions and resume some aspects of pre-pandemic life, the virus is still devastating parts of Asia.