…after 49-year-old woman tested positive for Covid-19 on December 21
Chimi Dema | Tsirang
A total of 365 individuals were tested for the virus in Dagana yesterday.
Close to 400 in Dagana came for the test after the 49-year-old woman tested positive for Covid-19 in Lhamoidzingkha. A total of 112 people were traced in connection to the positive case.
Twenty-two primary contacts of the woman including four family members tested negative on the rapid antigen test yesterday. The family members also tested negative for the virus during the RT-PCR test. Eighteen swab samples have been sent to Phuentsholing for the confirmatory test.
The 12 primary contacts are kept in facility quarantine and 10 are placed under home quarantine.
The patient had visited the flu clinic in the dungkhag on December 21 with symptoms.
The woman was moved to the isolation ward in Phuentsholing yesterday.
Lhamoidzingkha Drungpa Kinley Dorji said that the patient and her family members did not have travel history outside the dungkhag in the last week.
Kinley Dorji said that many shops were closed following the announcement of a positive case in the locality.
Lhamoidzingkha Gup Surja Bdr. Limboo said that the residents were urged not to move around unless it is urgent.
Meanwhile, with the dungkhag remaining cut off due to construction and widening of the stretch at Sonam Bja on the Manitar-Lhamoizingkha highway, bringing in goods is a tedious job.
Kinley Dorji said that essentials are brought in once a week from Phuentsholing with the help of an escort system.
The goods, however, need to be transhipped by people for a distance of 800 meters in between.
Gup Surja Bdr. Limboo said that this affected prices of goods and commodities. Shortage of labour to transship the essential is one of the main challenges.
Resident Lobzang Jigme said that a bag of 25kg rice costs Nu 760 now.
Meanwhile, Sonam Bja is 69km away from Phuentsholing via Jumja, from where Lhamoidzingkha is about 36km.
The road construction is expected to be completed by the end of February, next year.