The United Nations is preparing to carry out relief operations for Tonga at a distance to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak in the Pacific island nation reeling from a volcanic eruption and tsunami, an official said
badly hampered by the severing of an undersea cable, information on the scale of the devastation so far has mostly come from reconnaissance aircraft.Fiji-based United Nations co-ordinator Jonathan Veitch said in a media briefing that the agency will conduct most operations remotely, and may not send personnel to the island.
"They've been very cautious about opening their borders like many Pacific islands, and that's because of the history of disease outbreaks in the Pacific which has wiped out societies here." James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said the force of the eruption was estimated to be equivalent to five to 10 megatons of TNT, an explosive force more than 500 times the nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War Two.The Tongan government has started evacuating stranded residents in some outlying areas.
"It is a very difficult environment to be operating in, the ash clouds and things of that nature. Our defence forces have stood up their operation and are deploying as necessary, as directed," Morrison said. Tongan communities abroad posted new images received from families back home on Facebook, giving a glimpse into the extent of the devastation.
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