The National COVID-19 Task Force (NC19TF) revised quarantine duration for people travelling from high risk to low-risk areas with immediate effect. The duration will now depend on the areas they are travelling from.
People travelling from the red zone will be quarantined for 14 days while it has been extended to 10 days for those travelling from the yellow zone. Similarly, people travelling from green zones of the high-risk areas will have to undergo seven-day quarantine.
“Green is the place in high-risk areas like Samdrup Jongkhar which has seen a recent outbreak but is now clear of infection. Then Gomtu and Nanglam, which had a recent outbreak but the outbreak had been slightly controlled are categorized as a yellow zone. Then places like Samtse, Phuentsholing, that have continuous cases every day are high-risk area and is labelled as red,” explained Dr Tshokey, a member of the Technical Advisory Group to the NC19TF.
It is to reduce the risk of virus transmission in low-risk areas.
“Because of the change in the disease epidemiology, the increasing risk caused by the new variant, the disease pattern and the virus dynamic we felt that we should increase the quarantine duration,” said Dr Tshokey.
The areas identified as high risk continue to report positive cases of COVID-19 from the community. Despite lockdown and restrictions in place, Phuentshogling and Samtse report cases from the flu clinic and community almost every day.
Kelzang Choden/ Sonam Penjor
