The Health Minister asks the nation not to panic, as the Ministry is well prepared to tackle the disease if there is an outbreak in the country. This was shared during the second press briefing on the coronavirus.
Lyonpo also addressed some of the misconceptions that are there within the public.
“Because there seems to be a lot of miscommunication within the communities, we realised that since our first meeting which was on 29th January there is also a new so-called myth, people are concerned about. We have had many calls asking whether the Ministry is prepared, is ministry buying a vaccine for this coronavirus? and so on. So we want to inform the people that there is no vaccine at the moment, it is not developed at all,” said Dechen Wangmo, the Health Minister.
Lyonpo said the Ministry is receiving a lot of questions regarding the treatment of coronavirus.
“We have had many questions on if the Ministry is buying medicine for treating the coronavirus. I want to inform the nation that there is no specific medicine for treating the virus. What we can do is to provide supportive care. If we look at the signs and symptoms, it is very much similar to flu, most cases that have succumbed to death are from severe pneumonia. I think all our health workers are trained to manage and provide excellent supportive care. Lastly, I also would like to inform that in terms of the worst scenario, and we pray every day that this will not come to Bhutan, we are preparing for that as well,” Lyonpo added.
The Health Minister said in case if there is an outbreak in the country, the Ministry is confident and well prepared:
“We have identified hospitals, and the identified samples and patients will be airlifted from other parts of the country to JDWNRH in case of an outbreak. We have established the old MCH as the national coronavirus hospital. if we do have a spillover we have identified Gidakhom hospital as a backup. In terms of preparedness, both in terms of having specific areas to manage patients, to increasing our surveillance, strengthening our case detection we have worked in a very comprehensive manner. We feel that we are quite confident that we are prepared if it comes to Bhutan.”
At the press briefing, health officials also spoke on the global status on the coronavirus. The Health Minister also thanked Central Monastic Body for performing Kurims for the world.
Choni Dema
