GENEVA: The United Nations said Tuesday, January 18, 2022, it would try to maintain Tonga's Covid-free status in the relief effort following the volcano eruption and subsequent tsunami that hit the Pacific island nation.
Any humanitarian efforts to help the remote kingdom will follow the country's strict protocols for keeping out the coronavirus pandemic, UN agencies told reporters in Geneva.
"Tonga is a zero-Covid country," said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"They have very strict protocols for that. One of the first rules of humanitarian action is 'do no harm'," he said.
"So we want to make absolutely sure that all necessary protocols for entry into the country will be followed."
Tonga only recently reported its first and only coronavirus case.
Sixty percent of the country's population of over 100,000 people are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to figures from the World Health Organization.
The WHO said Tuesday it was for the Tongan authorities to balance their priorities between maintaining their Covid regulations and getting in urgently-needed support.
"It's up to the government to give out the guidance and the rules on how to enter the country, what protocols have to be in place," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.
"But yes, it certainly will be a priority to see that contamination can be avoided as much as possible."
Tonga has been virtually cut off from the rest of the world since Saturday's volcanic blast -- one of the largest recorded in decades, leaving swathes of the Polynesian archipelago smothered in grey ash and dust or damaged by the tsunami.