Rajesh Rai | Phuentsholing

Residents of Phuentsholing and Gomtu are worried if they would avail the second Covid-19 jab on July 20 when the second dose of vaccination rolls out in the country.

This is because the Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering said that active Covid-19 positive people cannot be vaccinated, while announcing the information about the 550,000 AstraZeneca vaccines on July 7.  He also explained vaccination wouldn’t be effective with positive cases from the community.

Both the towns have seen positive cases.

After the fourth lockdown commenced, Phuentsholing has seen an increasing number of community transmissions.

On July 13, the town saw 18 cases from the community. On July 12, there were 11 community cases.

On July 14, Phuentsholing reported 30 positive cases, but all were contacts of previous cases. One positive case was from the community.

Gomtu saw five positive cases yesterday, but all were contacts from previous cases.

A Phuentsholing resident, Karma Tshering Dorji, said as people are all inside their homes they don’t know where the virus is coming from.

“We are hoping these 14 days will work. Otherwise, we will have to come outside. We cannot go on forever like this.”

He said he is “hopeful” because the positive cases were from the previous cases. “I think the chain will be broken this time.”

He also said it was already 90 days. “We have been supporting and cooperating even in this fourth lockdown.”

Another resident said there are green, yellow and red areas within Phuentsholing.

“The government should vaccinate people in the green and yellow areas first and then only the residents of red areas.”

A Gomtu resident said the government may have to give the second jab at people’s homes.

“We all are inside our homes due to the lockdown.”

He said that people may be hesitant to go for the mixed jab. He said he saw people going to get the first vaccine late in the evening.

“I think they were scared,” he said.

Edited by Tashi Dema