Tshering Namgyal | Mongar

Lhuentse dzongkhag reported first eight positive cases on March 15.

Five hazelnut employees and two of their contacts tested positive along with a Bhutan Post employee.

Dzongkhag Covid-19 taskforce officials said that four Mountain hazelnut employees who had come to Maenbi for grafting hazelnut plants in the gewog were the primary source of another hazelnut field staff of the gewog, her husband and the baby sitter in Maenbi.

The case was determined after the hazelnut field staff in Maenbi gewog who came at the primary health centre at Tangmachhu with flu-like sign and symptom tested positive for antigen test and confirmed on the RT-PCR result at Mongar.

The staff of the Bhutan Post branch in Lhuentse is the lone person who has a travel history to Mongar, according to dzongkhag officials. The man reported flu-like signs and symptoms at the flu clinic in Lhuentse hospital.

He has a travel history in the Phaling town area, Gangzur and Dungkar; 28 primary contacts were identified and home quarantined.

The positive patients are being kept at the isolation centre in Gangzur.

Lhuentse dzongdag, Jambay Wangchuk, said that around 64 primary contacts of the eight positive cases were identified and the samples sent to Mongar Covid lab for confirmation.

He said while the movements were allowed as usual in the dzongkhag, movement restriction has currently been imposed in small cluster of Tangmachu town area.