The health surveillance of Trashigang has completed random testing of communities and collected a total of 279 samples from Merak gewog.

A member from every household was tested on May 22.

Health officials sent swap samples to Mongar for RT-PCR testing yesterday morning.  RT-PCR test results of 279 and eight front liners were awaited as of yesterday evening.

Trashigang health officer Gang Dorji said that the dzongkhag would deploy the surveillance team to Sakteng and Merak today. “All the herders along the way towards Merak and people in Sakteng village will be tested.”

He said that Trashigang had enough testing kits and other medical equipment. “We’ve asked for additional test kits from the ministry.”

Merak Mangmi, Phurba said that the gewog was comfortable with food reserves and there were no reports of people calling for essential items.

“Every year, people buy food items from Trashigang and stock up at the beginning of the year. People won’t face problems like in the towns,” he said.

He said that people were worried about animals entering into other pastures.

“If we allow herders to move out with animals, the purpose of the lockdown will fail,” said the Mangmi.

 “As per the government directives, we  ensure lockdown protocols are followed strictly.”

Sakteng Mangmi, Lhendup said that those in Sakteng are taking adequate measures in the wake of the Covid-19 and adhering to lockdown protocols.  “So far everything is well in Sakteng. We are yet to conduct mass screening and find out if our people are infected.”

With support from the police and desuups, he said, the drungkhag and gewog administrations were closely monitoring the people.

Meanwhile, given the rising number of Covid-19 positive cases in the dzongkhag, Trashigang Covid-19 taskforce imposed a complete lockdown in the entire dzongkhag for three days which ends today.

As per the task force’s notification, the lockdown was being imposed to allow the medical team to further executive contact tracing and investigate the case.

Since May 19, the dzongkhag reported 12 Covid-19 positive cases, including eight cases detected from Khashiteng chiwog in Merak  gewog.

By Neten Dorji | Trashigang