Monthly Archives: December, 0

Almost 90,000 individuals registered for the COVID-19 vaccine in the country so far. The health ministry opened the programme’s online registration portal on 21st February. However, according to the health minister, as of now, there is no exact date to start the vaccination.   

The additional doses of the Covishield vaccine from India are expected to arrive in the country by the mid of next month. The first consignment of 150,000 doses reached on 20th January. As per the government, Bhutan would require close to 400,000 more doses to vaccinate the entire eligible population.

In just a year after the agriculture ministry certified Lull in Kazhi Gewog of Wangdue Phodrang as a model organic village, the villagers launched more than 10 products recently. And they say this is just the beginning. They want to keep adding more items to their list of certified organic products.

Those in the Bhutanese creative industries sector can now look forward to better support for their innovative endeavours. The economic affairs ministry launched the Creative Industries Export Strategy of Bhutan, yesterday. The Strategy aims to protect the Bhutanese identity while promoting innovations in the sector for export.

Ambassador of Bhutan to Japan V. Namgyel and Ambassador of Japan to Bhutan Satoshi Suzuki signed a grant contract for the “Project for Procurement of Transfer Bus for Women’s Shelter Home in Wangsisna, Thimphu”, today. Under this project, the Government of Japan will provide Yen 8.67 million (About Nu 6 M) to RENEW for the procurement of a transfer bus under the Government of Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects (GGP).

Orange exporters of eastern Bhutan reaped a fruitful season despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Exporters say, compared to last year the total export increased by 30 per cent, this time.

Health Minister Dechen Wangmo said there is no new variant of coronavirus in the country. 23 samples were sent to Bangkok in Thailand for laboratory testing during the last week of the recent lockdown. Meanwhile, Lyonpo added that the Royal Centre for Disease Control (RCDC) will also be equipped to test variants from next month.

The psychiatric ward at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital will provide traditional medicine and spiritual health therapeutic services to recovering drug and alcohol dependents from next month. Launched today on a pilot basis for three months, it is the first-ever complementary therapeutic services incorporated into the drug and alcohol detoxification treatment at the psychiatric ward.    

The COVAX facility began the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. The first consignment of 600,000 doses of Covishield or AstraZeneca vaccine was shipped to Ghana from India on Wednesday. The facility also committed to delivering 50,000 doses of vaccine to Bhutan in the first quarter of this year.

Without any COVID-19 cases from the community for over a month, the Bhutan Olympic Committee (BOC) decides to allow all sports tournaments to resume from coming Monday. This was shared on their Facebook page earlier today.