The heart wrenching moment a woman trapped in hotel quarantine is forced to say goodbye to her dead mother through a window was captured on camera.
Our correspondent in Tonga, Patimiosi Ngūngūtau took this photo of an emotional farewell for a grieving family at the Tanoa hotel in Nukua’alofa yesterday.
The family requested that they stop outside the quarantine facility so that her daughter who was in managed isolation after recently arriving from New Zealand could pay her respects to her mother.
The daughter can be seen grieving from a quarantine room as family console her from a distance.
A burial service was held after the MIQ farewell at the Pikipeavela cemetery in Haveluloto for the deceased.
The photo shone a light on the struggles some people in managed isolation are going through when returning home for a family bereavement.
Tonga has a strict rule of 15-day quarantine at MIQs for repatriates who arrived at the Fua’amotu International Airport.
Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku said this morning Tonga has 287 positive cases since the outbreak.
There are only 133 active cases at present, 57 had recovered and 78 cases had been discharged from MIQs.
One person who had Covid died this week but the Minister of Health attributed his cause of death to the person’s underlying medical conditions.
