Bhutan’s success in avoiding Coronavirus is almost incomparable but the death of patients who are rare – only the fourth kingdom – show more work needed to fight a pandemic there, the leader said.
The Himalayan state is far around 8.00,000 people, sandwiched between China and India, has recorded fewer Covid deaths than almost elsewhere in the world.
But Bhutan PM Labeay Tshering – a doctor who is still carrying out surgery on weekends as “de-stresser” from office pressure – says death this week is “bitter reminder we need to do more”.
Tshiering said at the facebook post on Saturday that “it feels like a bullet to know that a more valuable life of death with Covid-19.
I grieve with the nation and continue to give my prayers for our good friends,” he added.
PM said Bhutan remained committed to fully eliminating the disease and said the nation was unable to “lose our people for something to be prevented”.
Bhutan, like many of the world, has seen a surge in infection related to an omicron variant that is very contagious.
Friday’s death came on the same day as the health authority reported 205 new Coronavirus cases – a national record since the pandemic began.
The kingdom has seen less than 5,000 cases as a whole since the disease appeared two years ago, and Bhutan had vaccinated almost all adult populations in mid 2021.