Younten Tshedup 

Of the 3,823 persons tested in Project DANTAK and Indian Military Training Team (IMTRAT) camps between August 20 and 30, close to 50 people tested positive.

However, the positive cases in the two organisations are only those that the health ministry has revealed to the public so far.

A 10-year-old girl who is a primary contact of the Project DANTAK cases tested positive on September 1. Her parents also tested positive to the virus recently.

According to officials from the health ministry, although the numbers from within the two organisations were ‘overwhelming’ the ministry’s response was no different from how they would have handled it even otherwise.

Officials said that the ministry was reinforcing the three Ts – tracing, testing and treatment – strategy, which the ministry initiated since May.

With the cases detected from the Project DANTAK and IMTRAT limited to Phuentsholing and Haa for now, officials said that the mass active surveillance in different clusters has been initiated, including the villages where the primary contacts are.

Further, the ministry together with Project DANTAK and IMTRAT officials is reinforcing the guidelines and protocol, which are already in place.

Following the detection of three positive cases from the IMTRAT campus in Haa last week, the Royal Centre for Disease Control collected and tested 2,402 samples on September 1. All results were negative.

Samples were collected from various locations in the dzongkhag including from the Sunday market, RBA, Bjee, Pudangna, Chungdu and Ugyen Dorji Central Schools, Eusu gewog, Lhakhang Karpo, Wangsa and neighbouring areas on August 31 and September 1.

Meanwhile, of the total positive cases, 18 of them have migrated to India with five cases admitted to the RIGSS Covid-19 centre in Phuentsholing. Another 28 are currently isolated at Project DANTAK campus in Phuentsholing and three at IMTRAT campus in Haa.  One is at the IMTRAT hospital in Thimphu.

Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering during his address to the nation on August 31 said that all residents of the armed forces camps, including Project DANTAK and IMTRAT, couldn’t move out of their camps for the next 10 days.