The road to recovery may be long but for the time being, the residents of Phuentshogling have a reason to heave a sigh of relief. The town did not record a COVID-19 positive case from the community for more than three weeks now. Even its isolation hospital is empty with all the patients recovered.
Despite without cases from the community since August 13, Phuentshogling wears a deserted look – not many cars or people moving around. The residents are still reeling from the impacts of the lockdown that lasted for almost four months. The restrictions were lifted completely on August 10.
According to the residents, as they choose to reopen cautiously, the past three weeks – free of cases from the community – have been comforting.
“It’s been a while since we last saw a positive case from the community. It is good news. I run a restaurant but it is not going well. There are not many customers. But I don’t mind it much as long as we don’t have new cases,” said Tshering Yangdon, a resident of Phuentshogling.
“We are happy that there are no cases these days. We have a Bhutanese saying – religion and science should go hand in hand. So I feel the Kurim the Central Monastic Body is conducting is complementing the containment efforts,” added Sonam Tshering, also in Phuentshogling.
Meanwhile, the health team has conducted over 10,000 RT-PCR tests in the town since the last case from the community. Health officials say with no cases from the community so far, it could mean that the chain of transmission is broken. Nevertheless, the health ministry is reminding people to be more vigilant and follow the basic preventive measures of handwashing, wearing a mask, using the Druk Trace app and avoiding crowded places.
At the same time, the Southern COVID 19 task force and the health team have sensitized the public, frontline workers and the people in containment centres in the Thromde on safety protocols.
Sonam Penjor, Phuentshogling
Edited by Sonam Wangdi
