Undermining the hard work and sacrifice of officials and volunteers who are working to prevent people from trespassing the border illegally around the clock, some people have still been ignorant of the government’s plea to declare their travel history and undergo quarantine.
So far over a 100 such cases of breaching protocols have been recorded.
With no community transmission, Bhutan has battled the pandemic successfully so far. But it is far from claiming victory and with cases of people entering the country illegally, it further puts not just an individual but the entire nation in jeopardy. The borders, if not taken care could lead to community transmission of the coronavirus as cases in the neighbouring country are on the rise.
Such an act could easily ruin all the efforts put in by the country in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is a big challenge not only for the ministry but the whole system the government adopted towards the COVID-19 pandemic response. We feel that maybe people are still not aware of the quarantine system. It is not to lock people down. The quarantine is just to help the individual and the community,” said Tandin Dorji, the Chief Program Officer with the Health Ministry.
The government incurs a minimum of Nu 30,000 to quarantine a person, and the actual cost will depend on how many people have come into contact with the case and the need to be quarantined. Besides, other costs are the loses of working time of health workers and other officials including the volunteers in tracing the contacts.
“The moment somebody comes in illegally through the border, we have to treat them as most probably infected so we have to trace anyone who has come in contact with the person. We have had cases in the past where we had to quarantine whole busloads of passengers. So this disrupts other peoples lives as well,” he added.
With the officials spending sleepless nights patrolling and working for the safety of the nation, the ministry urges the general public to adhere to the protocols set by the relevant authorities to combat the virus.
Kinley Dem
