Lockdown

The city of Shanghai will be locked down in two stages over nine days while authorities carry out Covid-19 testing.

The important financial hub has battled a new wave of infections for nearly a month, although case numbers are not high by some international standards.

Authorities had so far resisted locking down the city of some 25 million people to avoid destabilising the economy.

But after Shanghai recorded its highest daily number of cases on Saturday since the early days of the pandemic, authorities appear to have changed course.

Government departments, schools and most businesses are closed down, and the public required to stay indoors.

More than half of Tonga's Cabinet are in self-isolation after the Prime Minister tested positive for Covid-19.

On Friday, the government officially announced Tonga's first Covid-19 deaths.

These events come just over two months since Tonga endured the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami on January 15.

Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku confirmed the lockdown will run until 5am on Saturday, March 26, with daily curfew hours from 8pm to 8am.

Hu’akavameiliku said all retail and wholesale business, banks, gas stations, bread shops and schools will be closed for the duration of the one-week lockdown.

The only exceptions will be made for members of the public in the two islands needing to go to the pharmacies, farms and fishing for families needing urgent supplies. People will only be allowed to move for these needs from 8am to 8pm during the new lockdown period.

This comes after one of the five cases identified on Tuesday returned a negative test.

Matangi Tonga reports the new case, who is fully vaccinated, was a co-worker of one of the primary cases who tested positive on Tuesday.

They are all in isolation.

The Minister for Health, Saia Piukala, says 726 tests had been done as of yesterday, yielding seven close contacts, who tested negative, but have been placed in home isolation.

Digicel’s calls, texts, and limited internet services will be up for all customers during the full lockdown.

 Digicel Tonga CEO, Anthony Seuseu, said; “All our retail shops will be closed for five days. Our customers need to top up their phones today because you don’t know when you would need to make that all-important call or send text messages to friends and family. From tomorrow, the only way you can top up phones will be from friends and family from overseas or via *888# using MyCash if you are in Tonga.”

Speaking via Tongan radio, Prime Minister Hu'akavameiliku and Minister of Health Dr Saia Piukala held a media conference on Tuesday night to announce the news.

They confirmed that two cases of Covid-19 have been detected through routine testing at the wharf in Nuku'alofa.

Prime Minister Hu'akavameiliku ordered the lockdown.

Dr Saia Piukala said 50 people were tested as part of routine surveillance and the two positive cases were found.

ANZ has seen a 30-percent increase in Pacific internet banking customers, which comes after Samoa and Kiribiti's nationwide lockdown, and recent Tonga events.

Banking has been unaffected by recent riots in the Solomon Islands.

ANZ banks in the Pacific are operational, in-line with government requirements with banks in Samoa back open tomorrow.

ANZ Regional Executive for the Pacific, Tessa Price said people can still access money in Tonga from their bank online or via ATM.

Under the new measures, people have been told to stay at home and social gatherings are banned.

Some 36 people on the flight from Fiji have tested positive. Four people have caught the virus from community transmission.

Until last week, Kiribati had recorded just two Covid cases.

Kiribati is one of the most isolated islands in the world. It is some 4,800km (2,980 miles) from its nearest continent, Australia.

A woman, only identified as Ms Wang, posted on Chinese social media platform WeChat last week that she had got locked down with her date after visiting his house for a meal.

In the post, she said that she had recently returned to the city of Zhengzhou from Guangzhou ahead of the Lunar New Year.

"I'm getting quite old, so my parents arranged more than 10 blind dates for me," she said in this post. She wrote that her fifth date had said "he was good at cooking, and invited me to his house so he could cook a meal".

This follows a surge in Covid-19 infections in recent weeks.

Last weekend alone there were four deaths at the main hospital in Buka and nine cases detected on Monday and Tuesday.

During the lockdown, issued by the regional pandemic controller, Clement Totavun, all educational institutions are to continue to operate, but at new hours of 8am to 2pm.

The main town markets are to close, but road side markets can still trade.

Other businesses, and government offices, can remain open but must apply the safety protocols.