Australian navy ship with Covid-infected crew offloads aid to Tonga

Soldiers load onto HMAS Adelaide at the Port of Brisbane before departing for Tonga last week (CPL Robert Whitmore/Australia Defense Force via AP)

The Australian navy’s largest ship docked in Tonga on Wednesday and was allowed to unload humanitarian supplies to the South Pacific nation despite crew members being infected with Covid-19, officials said.

Nearly two dozen sailors aboard HMAS Adelaide were reportedly infected on Tuesday, raising fears that the mercy mission could bring coronavirus to the small archipelago devastated by an undersea volcanic eruption and a tsunami on January 15.