COVID-19 weekly briefing: CTA reports 233 positive cases, 2 deaths
DHARAMSALA, 11 Feb: The COVID- 19 Task Force of the Central Tibetan Administration reported 233 new cases among exiled Tibetans in India and Nepal over the past seven days as the cases continue to subside in India and across the globe.
“A total of 233 new positive cases and 3 deaths were reported among exiled Tibetans in India over the past seven days,” Deputy Secretary of Health Department Tenzin Kunsang said during the committee’s weekly briefing.
The cases, she said were reported after testing 501 Tibetans from 15 Tibetan settlements in India and 10 from 4 Tibetan settlements in Nepal.
Additionally, she said 701 Tibetans in India are under quarantine, either at their respective home or institutional quarantine centre.
The tally now stands at 8,987 COVID-19 positive cases to date, 8,599 recoveries, 166 deaths, and 299 active cases.
Further, she announced that the health department has successfully hired 22 nurses specifically to deal with COVID-19 on a contractual basis at its 16 clinics or hospitals across Tibetan settlements in India.
The committee announced that 49,816 Tibetans above 18 in India are fully vaccinated while another 478 Tibetans have received the first dose. The toll in Nepal stands at a total of 6,990 Tibetans completely vaccinated.
The vaccination tally of Tibetan children (15-17) in India stands at fully 389 Tibetan children completely vaccinated and while 896 children have received their first dose while a total of 91 Tibetan children in Nepal are completely vaccinated with 9 others yet to receive their second dose.
She urged the Tibetans to not let their guards down and continue to exercise caution by following the standard guidelines by wearing masks, keeping social distancing, and washing hands regularly.
Dr Tenzin Tsundue from Delek Hospital spoke about the subsiding of the cases across the world and added that the positivity rate has climbed down to 4-5 per cent across India.
He further spoke about the efficacy of the vaccines which he declared really makes a difference and urged all the eligible Tibetans to get inoculated besides following COVID appropriate behaviour.
Since its outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019, the pandemic has infected 405,904,465 people and killed 5,788,906 people globally according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
India sits in third place of the country worst hit by the pandemic with 42,478,060 cases to date and 506,520 deaths.
