COVID-19: CTA reports 104 new cases in a week, calls for utmost caution 

Dr Tsering Tsamchoe(L) and Palden Dhondup, the Secretary of the CTA’s Health Department at the committee’s weekly briefing.

DHARAMSALA, 24 Sept: The COVID- 19 Task Force of the Central Tibetan Administration(CTA) reported 104 new COVID-19 positive cases among exiled Tibetans in India and Nepal in the past week.

“A total of 104 exiled Tibetans tested positive for the COVID-19 in the last week after testing 1,282 Tibetans from 13 Tibetan settlements in India and 2 from 2 Tibetan settlements in Nepal,” Dr Tsering Tsamchoe said during the committee’s weekly briefing.

The tally now stands at 6,418 COVID-19 positive cases to date out of which 6,121 have recovered while 150 people have unfortunately succumbed with 147 active cases at the moment.

The committee described Dharamsala jurisdiction with 88 positive cases and Bylakuppee Tibetan settlement with 53 cases as the hot spot of the COVID-19 among the exiled Tibetan community in India.

A huge chunk of the 88 positive cases reported from the Dharamsala jurisdiction is from Norbulingka near here. 

A total of 33 people have tested positive for COVID in the Norbulingka area as of Wednesday.

Palden Dhondup, the Secretary of the CTA’s Health Department said that the cases have been rising since the 15th of Sept and further warned Tibetans that this could be the third wave calling for utmost caution.

“As many as 23 of the cases reported from Dharamsala region are children,” he said and ordered Tibetans in the Dharamsala and its environs against visiting restaurants, going to public gatherings, cinema halls and markets for a month  

“Our pleas are not being paid heed to hence, the committee will conduct inspection rounds for the betterment of the committee,” he said urging collective efforts to fight and contain the pandemic.

Last week, the committee reported 36 positive cases among exiled Tibetans in India.

Meanwhile, the positivity rate and daily Covid cases have been rising consistently in Himachal Pradesh.

“The most worrisome situation is in Mandi district where the positivity rate has escalated to 8.5 per cent, followed by 4.4 per cent in Hamirpur, 2.6 per cent in Kangra and 2.3 per cent in Shimla,” reports the Tribune.

Dr Tsamchoe further informed that a total of 536 exiled Tibetans from 9 Tibetan settlements in India and 2 from Nepal were under quarantine this week. While 195 of them are under home quarantine, another 341 are under institutional quarantine.

The committee said that 92.85 per cent of exiled Tibetans in India are fully vaccinated. A total of 36999 Tibetans in India have received both the dose while 13,649 Tibetans have received the first dose. 

The vaccination rate of Tibetans in Nepal stands at 45.59 per cent. A total of 3,191 Tibetans are fully vaccinated while another 533 have received their first jab.

Since its outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019, the pandemic has infected 230,156,368 people and killed 4,720,631 people globally according to data from Johns Hopkins University. India continues to sit second in the list of the country worst hit by the pandemic with 33,563,421 active cases and 446,050 deaths.

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