HEADLINE STORIES

With India explicitly committing to meet Bhutan’s vaccine needs for 533,000 eligible people and other arrangements in the pipeline, it is becoming clearer now that the main challenge of getting the COVID-19 vaccine is largely resolved. This now leaves two issues at hand for Bhutan. One is the safety of …

The country’s board exam dates for class X and XII will all depend on what happens in Thimphu and Paro. If schools from the two Dzongkhags ask for time extension to complete their syllabus, then a similar extension will be given to all schools and this would delay the board …

More details have emerged on the various factors contributing to the second outbreak and its spread. Government officials still regard the most probable source of the second outbreak as being the 27th November 2020 flight, mentioned by The Bhutanese last week, where 33 to 34 of the 52 to 55 …

Last weekend, The Bhutanese published a 2,400-word investigative article with the headline “How complacency and lax protocols led to the nation’s second COVID-19 outbreak,” which focused primarily on the systemic lapses that led to the second outbreak.  It examined measures inside the airport, logistics and coordination issues and found lapses from the …

Mass testing in Thimphu and Paro to unlock them in phases 22,000 mass tests in Thimphu and Paro are negative so far With total of 52,000 people in 18 dzongkhags testing negative through mass screening (including the tests conducted in the flu clinics) National COVID-19 Task Force unlocked 18 Dzongkhags …

A big question mark with the massive second COVID-19 outbreak in Thimphu and Paro is on its source and how it spread, despite the various precautions taken. An infectious flight and a driver It all started with a 27th November flight from Kolkata carrying 52 passengers and 6 crew with …

GoI has assured support Bhutan has requested India for help in procuring 1 mn doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine or Covishield that is being manufactured in the Serum Institute of India (SII) to vaccinate the whole Bhutanese population. The Foreign Minister Dr Tandi Dorji said that the Government of India …

Schools in other Dzongkhags hope to open by next week The ministry of education will not postpone the exam dates for school students. Class IX and XI will write their exams on third week of February and by end of February, they will finish it. Class X and XII exams …

The last three Bhutanese girls in Iraq will be coming to Bhutan on 4th January. This will complete the biggest and most audacious rescue of Bhutanese citizens in distress in a foreign land. The problem first cropped up from 2019 and even before when there were petitions, news and requests …

When the COVID-19 outbreak first happened the regular Ministry of Health morning updates and the evening press conferences of the Health Minister came up with four categories of data, each with its own implication and meaning. These were firstly the Close Contact cases who were the close contacts of cases …