Home ›› 13 Jun 2021 ›› World Biz
Bhutan has announced an immediate 72-hour lockdown in the capital city of Thimphu from Sunday Evening after an eight-year-old student of Druk School tested positive for novel coronavirus infection earlier in the day.
The lockdown, commencing 6:00pm Sunday (local time), aims to conduct cluster screening for early detection of more possible positive cases.
The Prime Minister's Office of Bhutan confirmed the matter in a post on its official Facebook page.
According to the announcement, the student tested positive on antigen testing but his results of the RT-PCR test came negative. The government still decided to initiate a lockdown since the viral load on the antigen was high.
"An 8-year-old was detected positive on antigen, whose cut-off index (COI) reading is far from reassuring," read the post.
The sample will be reconfirmed through RT-PCR in 48 hours, but as per protocol, extensive testing and screening of high-risk groups will be conducted in the capital during the lockdown period.
Bhutanese Prime minister Dr Lotay Tshering said the response was to maintain the highest level of prevention for all, considering the fact that it was a student and the reading on antigen was very high to take any chances.
