A total of 3,673 people registered through 1023 helpline and the the form circulated online for those who came from Phuentsholing from 1st August onwards. Thimphu has the highest number of people registered with 948 followed by Chukha with 367, and Paro with 114.
The testing has already been started and the contact tracing is still on-going. Contact tracing is done by asking the main person who tested positive about how many people he met with during the time he or she was positive.
Then they try to get the phone numbers of all the persons he or she has met. Then they contacted each of them and asked the same questions. However, the challenge is that people don’t remember who they have met and sometimes they are not truthful.
Talking to just one person consumes about 2 to 3 hours. Health workers visit people at home based on priority. Symptomatic ones are tested first. PCR test is for symptomatic ones and rapid test kits for others. RT-PCR test were done for the children aged 2 years and above only.
Officials from Ministry of Health said they are yet to receive data on the number of people tested so far from Royal Centre for Disease Control (RCDC).
While Paro Dzongkhag has registered 114 people and the government is conducting test in the red zones for Paro like Bondey and Woochu. The sample collection is ongoing and the results will be out soon.
A MoH official said the challenges associated with mass testing is people’s compliance, people not coming out in time, people not keeping their phone near to them, people double registering themselves and some numbers being switched off. The government has announced that after their sample is taken, if they do not get a call within 72 hours it means they are negative.
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