Two Kyaukphyu District officials die same day after testing positive for Covid-19 

By DMG 13 Jul 2021

DMG Newsroom
13 July 2021, Kyaukphyu

The deputy head of the Kyaukphyu District Police and the assistant director of the district’s Road Department succumbed to Covid-19 on Monday as the Arakan State death toll since the pandemic’s third wave began rose to 16. 

The Road Department official tested positive for Covid-19 on July 7 and died five days later while receiving treatment. 

“He was one of the close contacts of a Covid-19 positive case. He was at the isolation ward and he had an underlying disease. He died from shortness of breath,” said a member of the district military council. 

Ko Japan Gyi, chair of the Laywaddy Kula Rakhita philanthropic association, said the assistant director was obese and had difficulty breathing while sleeping. He said three Covid-19 patients at Kyaukphyu District Hospital had died in two days, all of them with comorbidities that increase the risk of severe illness and death in coronavirus-positive individuals. 

The head of the Kyaukphyu Township Police confirmed that a police major who was deputy head of Kyaukphyu District Police was one of the three fatalities.  

“He had an underlying disease of diabetes. He died at 11:15 p.m.,” said Police Major Khin Maung Swe, head of the Kyaukphyu Township Police, adding that the deceased had tested positive for Covid-19 just a day earlier, on July 11. 

Two family members who had close contact with the deputy district police head were also tested for Covid-19 and policemen from the district office were under home quarantine, he said. 

There were 61 Covid-19 cases at Kyaukphyu District General Hospital as of Monday.  

“The main thing I want to tell people is to protect themselves. When people go out, they have to wear a mask and avoid crowded places,” said Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the Arakan State Department of Public Health. 

Myanmar’s military regime has closed primary schools, including monastic education schools, from July 9-23 due to the growing number of coronavirus cases, including the highly contagious Delta variant. Border trade camps in Arakan State have been ordered closed from July 15-31 for the same reason. 

Myanmar recorded 5,014 new coronavirus cases nationwide on July 12, with 89 dead on Monday alone, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.