Doctors

Permanent Secretary for Health, Dr James Fong said a 25-year-old female doctor, presented at a screening clinic today with COVID-like symptoms.

She was tested positive for the virus.

Dr Fong said, the second, a 30-year-old male doctor, was tested as part of contact tracing for the first doctor.

The two doctors have been entered into isolation and their close household contacts have been quarantined.

Director of Health, Dr. Siale 'Akau'ola  told Radio and TV Tonga News the students need to fulfil several conditions after graduation before they are allowed to practice as doctors.

He said most students have applied for jobs at the Ministry of Health after graduating from Chinese universities but they have been offered jobs as health inspectors associate.

The Chinese Embassy in Tonga says one of the problems identified is that students are not given time for practical work.

Experts who have carried out a large study say the guidelines for hospitals on diagnosing a miscarriage need to be updated, so that women always get a second ultrasound scan two weeks after the first if the gestational sac seen in the scan is small. It is not always possible to be sure that a very small embryo with no detectable heartbeat is going to miscarry, they say.