With holidays and lots of festivals and events happening at this time of the year, a lot of people are travelling around the country. Amid this, travelling from high to low risk that requires mandatory seven-day quarantine is becoming difficult, especially amid limited quarantine facilities. In Sarpang, the increasing number of travellers is putting a huge pressure to constraint hotel quarantine facilities.
When BBS reached the old Dungkhag office – where quarantine registration and confirmations are being done, nearly a hundred of them had gathered – to confirm their quarantine requests.
Most of them had waited for more than a week to register for quarantine. Among them, some are on their way home to attend to their ailing parents and students who came for winter activities organized in the dzongkhag.
One of the travellers is Khando. He had come to the office to confirm his registration so that he could leave for his destination at the earliest. However, the status of his request was upsetting.
“I registered for quarantine through a call a week ago, but reaching here, I got to know that it is not registered. I registered manually and they told me that it is going to take another two weeks,” he said.
Likewise, another traveller was Dorji Tshering. With his mother seriously ill at home, his travel is quite urgent but he hasn’t received any confirmation for his quarantine.
“They said they would call us within two to three days, but for more than a week, I have been waiting for the confirmation,” he said.
Of more than 40 hotel quarantine facilities in the dzongkhag, about 30 are identified for routine travellers while the rest of the hotels and the 200-bedded facility constructed recently are designated for incoming expatriates.
And with over 3,000 outbound travellers registered with the task force, it has put so much pressure on the existing facilities.
According to Dawa Pelzang from COVID-19 Incident Commandant Secretariat, they can facilitate quarantine rooms for only about 70 people daily.
“But with about 300 people registering for quarantine facility every day, we are not able to provide the facility to everyone at the same time,” he said.
To solve the issue at the earliest possible, he said the secretariat office is looking to expand the quarantine facilities in the newly constructed buildings. However, with an overwhelming number of travellers, the problem of shortage of quarantine facilities remains far from over.
Meanwhile, the office facilitates transport service to those who don’t have vehicles and also keeps people in quarantine in dzongkhags.
Karma Wangdi, Sarpang
Edited by Chayku
