COVID-19: CTA reports 80 new positive cases

CTA Health Department’sDeputy Secretary Nyima Gyaltsen(L), Dr Tenzin Tsundue (c) and Dr Tsering Tsamchoe(R) from the Covid- 19 Task Force of CTA during the press briefing.

DHARAMSALA, 16 April: Eighty exiled Tibetans in India and Nepal have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past week, the Covid- 19 Task Force of the Central Tibetan Administration said.

“A total of 80 Tibetans have tested positive for the COVID-19 in the last week after tests were conducted on 747 Tibetans from India and 6 Tibetans from Nepal,” Dr Tsering Tsamchoe said during the committee’s weekly briefing.

The tally of exiled Tibetans in India and Nepal now stands at 1,837  COVID-19 positive cases to date out of which 1,648 have recovered while 48 people have succumbed with 141 active cases.

The committee further informed that a total of 232 exiled Tibetans from 14 Tibetan settlements in India and one from Nepal were under quarantine this week.  Of the lot, 151 are under home quarantine while 81 are under institutional quarantine.

Dr Tsamchoe further said that some settlements were hit hard by the COVID-19 last week and that emergency committees were set up in regions.

The committee said they got hold of the situation by holding conference calls with the respective committees and rendered every assistance at their disposal and guidelines through series of conference calls.

With cases spiking in India and India recording the highest every-single-day spike crossing the two lakh mark, Nyima Gyaltsen, the Deputy Secretary of the CTA’s Health Department who addressed the briefing advised Tibetans not to let their guards down and continue to exercise caution.

He further identified travelling, social gathering, hospital visits and visits to markets as the cause of increasing cases within the Tibetan community.

He further advised not to flout COVID protocols and said

“We should exercise caution and practice by guidelines issued by the health authorities and Government of India and by wearing masks, maintaining social distancing which is easy to follow and effective to fight and contain the COVID- 19.”

He further called for stringent quarantine practices by those who tested positive for COVID-19 as well as by those who had contact with COVID-19 positive cases until they are tested and cleared for corona.

India overtook Brazil as the second worst-infected country behind the United States on Monday and hit a record daily high with 2,00,739 positive cases over a 24-hour period on Thursday and the figure increased to 2,17,353 on Friday.

India’s health ministry reported today that it has 1,5,69,743 active naval coronavirus cases.

Dr Tenzin Tsundue briefed the public over the symptoms of the COVID-19 new strains which included among others red eye, rashes, muscle cramps, headaches and bone pain.

With cases spiking in India and hospitals in Maharashtra, Delhi and Gujarat running out of bed, he advised Tibetans to continue to exercise caution and safety measures.

He further encouraged those who are eligible to get inoculation.

Presently, those who are above 45 years of age can register for vaccination either through AarogyaSetu,  a mobile application developed by the Government of India and www.cowin.gov.in  a website run by India’s Health Ministry.

So far, 13707 Tibetans have been vaccinated out of which1,215 of them are frontline workers.

Since its outbreak from Wuhan in late 2019, the pandemic has infected 139,109,041 people and killed 2,986,608 people globally according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *