Ten of the 38 Covid-19 positive cases admitted at the Eastern Covid-19 Centre, Mongar since April 27 were discharged as of yesterday. Among them was a 6-year-old boy.

Of the remaining 28 patients, 16 patients including a two-year-old girl are in the de-isolation centre. Half of the remaining 12 active cases are asymptomatic while the other six cases are with comorbid conditions, according to health officials.

Seven of them are non-Bhutanese.

A team including five nurses and a safety officer is treating the patients at the centre. They are deployed on rotation for three weeks and undergo compulsory quarantine for two weeks.

Health officials said the team has been reduced from seven to six members in the light of staff shortage. The eastern regional referral hospital has 47 nurses trained for Covid-19 critical cases.

The dzongkhag has also enhanced surveillance after positive cases were reported in its adjoining Trashigang district and Samdrupjongkhar.

According to health officials, more than one thousand people who had travelled to Trashigang were tested. Health officials have started testing frontline workers including taxi and truck drivers ferrying essentials on a regular basis. Random testing is conducted among the business community and schools.

The eastern Covid-19 centre has 10 Intensive Care Unit beds and 43 isolation beds with the capacity to adjust 10 more.

Meanwhile, health officials said that they found that only about 90 percent of people in the town wear face masks and only a handful use hand sanitiser or washes hands and use Druk Trace app during a recent inspection. “Outside the town, the use of face masks has declined and most don’t wear them in the rural area,” a health official said.

By Tshering Namgyal | Mongar

Edited by Tshering Palden

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