Swabs from over 50 people in Maungdaw Twsp sent to Sittwe for testing

24 Aug 2020

Kyaw Myo Aung | DMG
24 August, Maungdaw

Swab samples from 51 people who returned to Maungdaw Township from Sittwe and two people under surveillance for COVID-19 at Maungdaw Hospital were sent to the Arakan State capital on August 24 for lab testing, according to the Maungdaw District Department of Public Health.

“The swabs were taken from 53 people yesterday and sent to Sittwe today,” Dr. Nu Kathy San, assistant director of the Department of Public Health in Maungdaw District, told DMG.

The swabs were taken from 24 men and 29 women, one of whom is a teacher who had come from Sittwe to work in northern Maungdaw Township, according to the Maungdaw Township Department of Public Health.

In the town of Maungdaw, eight people are under facility quarantine while most of those individuals who returned from Sittwe are under home quarantine, said U Soe Aung, the administrator of Maungdaw District.

“Eight people returned from the area that is put on lockdown in the capital Sittwe and a monastery where a monk has tested positive for COVID-19. Village heads have been told to inform us if villagers who returned from Sittwe are not staying under home quarantine,” he said.

The Health Department on August 24 took swabs of two people from Laung Done village and one from Kyein Chaung village in northern Maungdaw Township, as they had returned from Sittwe. The department has yet to take swabs from 11 people in some villages of the Ngakhura village-tract who returned from Sittwe, said the head of Katmakaung village.

The COVID-19 patients in Maungdaw district who were infected abroad have already recovered and been discharged from hospital.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Health and Sports on Monday night, four people from Buthidaung Township tested positive for COVID-19 on August 24. Three of those cases had visited Sittwe, the epicentre of the recent coronavirus outbreak.