Meeting with the ministers and executives yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering said the three-week quarantine practice and effective surveillance system is what has helped Bhutan see no community transmission so far. And this has only prepared the country to handle the worst should it see increasing positive cases.
Prime Minister said from the health management perspective, Bhutan’s fight against the pandemic is well on track.
“The moment we suspect positive cases, we are able to detect. As per international standard, it’s 14 days of quarantine and if you are symptomatic, you have to get yourself checked. We are not just doing two weeks but three weeks, and now with more Bhutanese returning from affected countries, we are doing three tests. We take a sample from the moment they enter so we are able to isolate the positive cases from day one. And in between, we do an antibody test and during exit we do RT-PCR. So we are leaving no stones unturned. That is why even when we have thousands of people completing their quarantine, we do not have community transmission,” Lyonchhen said.
While the country is seeing an increasing number of positive cases, all the cases are imported and are in quarantine facilities. According to Lyonchhen, COVID-19 hasn’t reached the country technically, “the ones we have are all in quarantine. We say that quarantine is for three weeks but it is 24 days if you all have not realised. Day one, we consider that as day zero and then 21st day, we take a sample, on the 22nd day, we get a result and then on 23rd we ask them to leave. So 23 days plus day zero is 24 days. So we have 24 days on record and we thought we should cover this as well and let’s leave no stones unturned. Every day almost more than Nu 4 M is spent on this.”
Highlighting the concerns of His Majesty, Prime Minister said, while Bhutan has taken the highest level of preventive measures, the health emergency leading to economic crises which in turn could prompt social crises should the situation worsen is worrying.
Sonam Pem
