COVID

A spokesperson for the government has confirmed to RNZ Pacific the small nation of three atolls announced the first-ever case on Sunday.

Up until now Tokelau, which is a dependency of New Zealand, was the last remaining country along with Turkmenistan to not have experienced community cases.

RNZ Pacific reports the case is located on Nukunonu, the largest atoll in Tokelau.

Tokelau has now been plunged into lockdown.

The index case doesn't know how they contracted the virus.

Work is underway to establish how the virus entered the community.

The latest figure, covering the past week, brings the total number of cases since September 2021 to 70,937.

The death toll remains at 314 - all of them died after the Delta variant entered the community in that same month.

Pandemic-related restrictions have now been lifted.

However, the country remains at Alert Level Two and the government has extended this until midnight May 31.

Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa has announced the removal of the 11pm to 6am curfew and high schools will begin opening from Wednesday with primary schools going back to normal classes on May 30.

All pre schools will resume from July 4.

Fiame said there would be weekly flights to and from New Zealand and Australia starting from June 22 with a fortnightly flight from Fiji.

All travel bookings can again be made with travel agents.