The Bhutanese Leading the way.
In the last four weeks, the number of COVID-19 cases has increased with 169 cases for the last 7 days and 116 cases before that. It was 95 cases two weeks ago, 55 before that and 30 cases prior to that.
However, these are mainly due to people traveling into the country from abroad.
However, despite this Bhutan’s test positivity rate is 1 percent, a drastic change compared to in the beginning of the year where the positivity rate was 7 percent.
The Health Minister Dasho Dechen Wangmo said the number of positive cases in Bhutan is reflective of what is happening in the rest of the world. Presently, there is a surge of SARS-COVID sub-variant BA.4 and BA.5, but Bhutan has not detected any of these sub-variants except for a single Omicron XJ variant. Otherwise, Bhutan has only detected BA.2 so far.
Bhutan has good vaccine coverage and the health ministry is encouraging people to take their third dose of vaccine. The ministry is also monitoring home quarantine, and requesting the public to follow the COVID-19 protocols, especially if someone is asked to stay under home quarantine for 24 hours on arrival or if someone is symptomatic, to let the health workers know so that an Antigen test on the arrival can be done, and steps can be taken to isolate the patient immediately till he/she gets the negative result. People are also advised to refrain from mass gatherings, and continue with the use of facemask.
“I would like to reiterate that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over”, said Lyonpo Dasho Dechen Wangmo.
Five days of quarantine have been removed because Bhutan has a good vaccine coverage and also the detection is not very high as the vaccine coverage gives a huge confidence. This is the reason that Bhutan can transition from test and go.
Experts say BA.4 and BA.5 are more transmissible than BA.2. Bhutan imports huge foreign workers so there is always a risk of bringing in new variants in the country, Dasho Dechen Wangmo said, the country is not doing gene sequencing at the individual level. Rather, at the point of entries in Paro, Phuentsholing, Gelephu, Samdrupjongkhar and Samtse, the ministry is randomly picking up samples and processing them every month.
“We are keeping a very close eye on gene sequencing,” said Lyonpo.
Since the onset of the pandemic, from the total 13,766 incoming workers, the positivity rate among foreign workers is 0.6 percent and from 10,693 people screened from the flu clinic, the positivity rate is less than 2 percent. The overall country’s positivity rate is below 1 percent. “Anything below 5 percent is fine,” said Lyonpo Dasho Dechen Wangmo.
According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), BA.4 and BA.5 can bypass immunity from a past infection or vaccination, experts say. This means people can be reinfected even if they had Omicron earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Bhutan has detected a total of 60,109 positive cases (32,594 are male, 27,515 female and 3420 children), of which 59,959 have recovered and 21 succumbed to COVID-19.
As of 18 July 2022, there are 129 positive cases in the country, of which 74 are asymptomatic.
