The College of Science and Technology is under lockdown after four staff working in its canteen tested positive yesterday. 

The cook tested positive first and the three primary contacts, who are canteen staff, also tested positive for the virus. 

More than 135 students who left for home on May 31 were quarantined in Thimphu, Paro and Chukha respectively. The taskforce intervened immediately and called the buses that they were travelling and the buses headed straight to the quarantine facility in the dzongkhags, according to a source. 

Five students who got off the buses at Gedu were also traced and quarantined. The task force has traced some students who left for Samtse. 

These individuals left the CST campus after completing a week-long quarantine in their campus. 

“The students were going home after completing their exams,” a CST official said.

The official said about 13 college faculty members, including their families, were part of the outgoing group. They also had stayed under quarantine in the campus. 

Kuensel learnt that the Prime Minister had a long chat with the Vice Chancellor of the Royal University of Bhutan regarding the matter. 

There are 411 students on the campus in quarantine mode. However, 180 students who visited the eatery in the past three days have been quarantined separately in the college campus. The Covid-19 results of the students are expected to be out today. 

In Samtse, the dzongkhag Covid-19 taskforce enforced a complete lockdown in Norbugang gewog yesterday. The decision comes after three more tested positive from the community in Dawaling and Yangphelthang yesterday morning. 

Two are women from Dawaling and a man from Yangphelthang.

Movement of people and vehicles to and from Norbugang is not allowed. Commuters of other gewogs travelling via Norbugang gewog will be allowed to travel without stopping. 

Shops and roadside vendors in Khandothang and along the Samtse-Norbugang highway will be closed until further notice. Those who have visited Dawaling and Yangphelthang on and after May 21 are home-quarantined. 

Schools in Samtse town and Khandothang will remain closed until the contact tracing is completed.

On May 30, three frontline workers tested positive in Dawaling. Since then, Dawaling and Yangphelthang villages were placed under complete lockdown.

By Rajesh Rai | Phuentsholing

Edited by Tshering Palden