Pacific

Wallis goes into lockdown after finding 12 more Covid-19 cases

06:25 am on 9 March 2021

Wallis and Futuna has been rushed into a two-week lockdown from this morning after yesterday's tests revealed another 12 Covid-19 positive cases in the community.

Authorities react to Covid-19 community outbreak Photo: FB French Prefect Wallis and Futuna

The first infection was reported on Saturday in a school principal who had left mandatory quarantine weeks ago after returning a negative test result.

His case appears to be linked to a simultaneous community outbreak in New Caledonia which went into a lockdown at midnight after recording its first nine community cases.

The authorities in Wallis now report 19 cases in total, including the first on the island of Futuna.

Passenger air traffic has been suspended.

Until the weekend, both New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna were the only French-administered territories without Covid-19 in the community.