The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) as a pandemic. However, given the situation right now in Bhutan, the WHO said the disease is not alarming here.
“The situation in Bhutan is not as alarming given the one case. Why I said this is because there is no local transmission within the country yet. And the actions taken by the government is very appropriate given the situation now which by the government classification is called the orange zone,” said Dr Rui Paulo de Jesus, the WHO representative to Bhutan.
The WHO declared COVID-19 outbreak as Global health emergency of international concern in January this year. Following the spread of the virus and its severity across 114 countries, WHO yesterday declared the disease as Pandemic.
“As of now as you can see in the news, 114 countries are affected by this disease. And if you see the case even outside China has also increased more or less 13 times compared to China. Why China? Because it has decreased. As of now, it has killed more than 4200 people. So based on that assessment and then by definition, pandemic means it has spread to the whole world. So if you look at it, 114 countries, if you look at the population. That means two-thirds of the countries in the world has been affected by this disease. So that is why WHO declared COVID-19 as Pandemic,” added the WHO representative to Bhutan.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister in the press briefing said that the outbreak declared as a pandemic will not change anything in the country. Lyonchhen said there is nothing to panic over this declaration.
“Yesterday WHO declared the disease not only as an epidemic but also pandemic. There is nothing to worry about it. Coronavirus is what it was. Transmission of the disease, precaution, prevention, treatment, and Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for this are the same as before. When WHO declared the disease as a pandemic, there is no change in Bhutan. We have already rolled out the plans and everything is done according to it way before the disease is declared Pandemic. We are not allowing tourists, and identifying suspects and are kept in quarantine. We are even testing for cough. We just have one case. Just because WHO declared the disease as Pandemic, there is nothing new to bring in and panic,” said Dr Lotay Tshering, the Prime Minister.
Moreover, WHO said that describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this virus. It doesn’t change what WHO is doing, and it doesn’t change what countries should do. They added that this pandemic is, however, the first one that can be controlled at the same time.
Samten Dolkar
