WELLINGTON - Tongans queued for limited money services that were restored in the Pacific island's capital on Saturday , as the clean-up continued a week after a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami.
Residents who had lost homes on outlying islands when a tsunami reaching up to 15 metres crashed over the South Pacific archipelago would be relocated to the main island, Tongatapu, because of water and food shortages, the Tongan prime minister's office said in a statement distributed to Tongan officials.
Burials were held earlier in the week for a Tongan man and a woman who had died when the tsunami hit the outlying Ha'apai islands. The official death toll is three.Mr Faka'iloatonga Taumoefolau, the coordinator for the project to rebuild Tonga's Parliament, said the restoration of international money transfer services, for limited hours on Saturday, was important for people to be able to buy essential goods.
The Tongan government has implemented a strict Covid-19 policy that means people, including aid workers, cannot enter the country unless they have undergone a three-week isolation period. Mr Taumoefolau said Tonga had done a good job in avoiding a pandemic outbreak, recording only one case so far, and the border policy would not hinder aid reaching communities.An Australian navy vessel, HMAS Adelaide, was expected to arrive in Tonga on Wednesday with more bulk water and a 40-bed field hospital, Australia's minister for international development and the Pacific, Mr Zed Seselja, told reporters in Canberra on Saturday.
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