The three-day lockdown in Thimphu that the government announced on Saturday was lifted this afternoon. This was following the confirmatory test of the eight-year-old student which came out negative today.
The eight-year-old student was tested on the RT-PCR for COVID-19 today after the antigen test showed a high viral load on Saturday. The student of Druk School visited the RBP flu clinic with symptoms like cough and headache.
More than 2,000 samples collected yesterday during the cluster testing also tested negative. It ruled out all the possibilities of COVID-19 presence in the capital for now.
The government imposed the lockdown in Thimphu to prevent the potential spread of the disease. The COVID-19 technical advisory group member said that the false positive from an antigen test is expected sometimes.
“The possibility of this false positive showing high cut off value index I could think of two. The child was sick for few days. So the child could be either suffering from other respiratory virus or bacteria, not necessarily the SARS-COV-2. So therefore when a child or any people get a respiratory illness, respiratory throat cells will be infected. So usually after few days, the dead cell infected by bacteria or viruses will be there on the throat,” said Dr Sonam Wangchuk, the Head of the RCDC.
The other reason he added is that the general population also have a common coronavirus. The possibility of the child infected by a common coronavirus is possible which showed the false result.
The student and close contacts are also out of home quarantine.
Sangay Chezom/Samten Dolkar
