A repatriation flight will bring around 122 passengers to Tonga from Brisbane, Australia today.
Other flights scheduled for 25 February have been postponed to arrive in Tonga on 3 March from Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.
MEIDECC CEO, Paula Ma’u said the reason was due to passengers now staying in quarantine for three weeks [with no home quarantine]. “We must give workers one week to rest and to have quarantine facilities cleaned before the arrival of the next repatriation flights.”
Currently, the 114 passengers who arrived on 04 February remain in quarantine at the Tanoa Hotel in Nuku'alofa.
Passengers arriving today will be quarantined at the Kupesi Hotel and Taliai Military Camp at Fua'amotu for three weeks, ending on 4 March.
The 3 March flight from Fiji is chartered by the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints (LDS) and will bring an estimated 70 plus passengers, including LDS missionaries. Other passengers will also include Tongans who were in Europe, India and Papua New Guinea. All these passengers will spend 14 days in quarantine in Fiji prior to the flight.
The flight from New Zealand is a commercial one and the flight from Australia is chartered by the employers of seasonal workers.
The maximum number of passengers that can be quarantined in Tonga at one time is 250.
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