Tonga, struck by twin disasters, goes into lockdown over five virus cases.
Source: NY Times
Updated Feb. 2, 2022, 1:59 a.m. ET
Tonga went into lockdown on Wednesday evening after recording its first community transmission of the coronavirus, weeks after being battered by a powerful volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami. The eruption shrouded buildings in ash, swamped the island with water, cut off digital communication and prompted an international humanitarian aid effort.
Two workers who were helping to distribute aid shipments at the Tongan wharf tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, prompting Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni to announce a lockdown that night. Three more positive cases were recorded on Wednesday among relatives of the workers, who are asymptomatic and in quarantine, local news media reported.
The outbreak occurred despite efforts by countries and aid groups to deliver relief without direct contact with the island nation, which had managed until now to remain mostly coronavirus free.
The initial two cases were detected in Nuku’alofa, the capital, during routine testing of frontline wharf workers, local news media reported.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/world/asia/tonga-lockdown.html
Slight correction to the article - prior to the disasters Tonga WAS virus free, not "mostly" as stated above.