Announcing the government’s plans and way forward to manage the COVID-19 situation, the Prime Minister said there will be no lockdowns even if there are community cases. This new strategy will be implemented from next month. The announcement comes amid news of some of the developed countries easing COVID restrictions and choosing to live with the virus despite record infections. The Prime Minister said they have been planning this for more than a month now on His Majesty’s command.
The Prime Minister said the new strategy will be implemented after all children aged between five and 11 are vaccinated. According to the Prime Minister’s office, the National Task Force met after the Prime Minister’s address to revisit all the existing SOPs to align with the new strategy.
“If we do away with lockdown despite cases from the community, the way we manage COVID situation will also change including testing, the way we categorise and trace primary contacts and even quarantine duration and protocol for travelling from high-risk to low-risk areas will change,” said the Prime Minister.
Today, it is mandatory for anyone travelling into the country from abroad to undergo two-week long quarantine if they are vaccinated and the unvaccinated travellers are required to stay in quarantine for three weeks. Domestic travellers from high-risk to low-risk areas are required to stay in quarantine for a week.
“Many countries have started to do away with this protocol for the vaccinated travellers with negative COVID certificate. Although we are aware of and can adopt such a practise, we did not because our focus has been on maintaining zero community cases. Now going forward, we cannot stick to this as we detect cases from the community. So, we will change all these protocols,” added the Prime Minister.
The way the COVID patients are managed will also change.
“Currently, we pick up every COVID patient and put them in isolation centres and even isolate their primary contacts in quarantine facilities. As we implement the new approach, all these will change,” said the Prime Minister.
But the Prime Minister said lockdowns will happen if hospitalisation increases or about 70 to 80 per cent of beds in isolation wards are occupied. Lockdowns will also happen if there is a new lethal variant. It will be a complete lockdown for at least two weeks.
The Prime Minister said people should shoulder the responsibility of protecting themselves and communities at large from infection.
Phub Gyem
