(New Delhi) Bhutan this week recorded one death from COVID-19, only the fourth in this Himalayan country so far largely spared from the pandemic, leading the Prime Minister to call on the population to redouble their efforts.
Posted at 7:44 a.m.
The kingdom of 800,000 people, landlocked between India and China, is one of the few countries on the planet to record such a low number of deaths linked to COVID-19.
The only other places to post such good results are small archipelagos in the Pacific as well as countries that do not publish balance sheets, such as North Korea and Turkmenistan.
The fourth death “bitely reminds us that we need to do more,” said Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, a doctor known to perform surgeries on weekends to take the stress out of his political responsibilities.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Mr. Tshering said that upon learning of the death he felt like he had been “hit by a bullet”, and said he was “mourning with the nation”.
The prime minister said Bhutan remains committed to eradicating the virus from its territory as the nation cannot afford to “lose citizens to a preventable disease”.
Like many countries around the world, Bhutan has seen an increase in the number of people infected with the highly more contagious Omicron variant.
The new death came on Friday as health authorities reported 205 new cases, a record since the start of the pandemic.
For two years, the kingdom has recorded just under 5,000 cases and almost the entire adult population has been vaccinated since mid-2021.