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The Health Minister Dechen Wangmo said that as per their inspections and hear-say they believe that there are lesser number of people using the Druk Trace App since the relaxations have come in place.
Lyonpo reinstated the importance of using the Druk Trace App and encouraged the shopkeepers and public transport people to be more responsible for the safety of the greater population.
Lyonpo said, “I got on board on a taxi myself, the driver did not ask me to use the app, similarly with shopkeepers, only a handful of shopkeepers encouraged people to use the app.”
Lyonpo stated that if people were only going to stick the QR codes but not use it or encourage and remind people to use it, it would not be useful.
She added, “It would be doing it for the sake of doing it without purpose.”
Lyonpo said that so far there have been 260,000 downloads for the Druk Trace App, however, when it comes to taxis and public transportation only about 15,000 have registered so far for the App’s QR codes as compared to the strength of the taxis and buses in the country.
Lyonpo said that a reminder notice will be sent to Road Safety and Transportation Authority (RSTA) soon to encourage more people to come up and avail the facility.
The Health Minister reminded that taxis and other public transports that they have to be extra careful as there is a mix of people coming from different families and unlike private vehicles, it would be hard to track down if incase there was a community transmission, had the people not been using the App.
The Lyonpo stated that as per experiences and lessons learnt by other countries, experts said that due to complacency and behavioral change in those countries, the second or third waves have started hitting those nations.
Lyonpo said that it comes down to individual responsibility to not be complacent especially in these times and avoid gathering and use proper public health measures for safety.
She stated, “If we implement proper health and safety measures, we can do smart lockdowns, but if people become complacent and suppose a community transmission happens, then we may be required to resort to a national lockdown.”
“National lockdown has economic cost implications, social costs and lots of inconveniences, so to prevent that we must focus of non-pharmaceutical interventions and public health interventions.” Lyonpo concluded.
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