Thandwe Hospital discharges 32 Covid patients and close contacts; BGF member succumbs to virus

By DMG 04 Jul 2021

DMG Newsroom
4 July 2021, Thandwe 

Five recovered Covid-19 patients and 27 people under quarantine due to close contact with coronavirus-positive individuals were discharged from the hospital in Thandwe Township, Arakan State, on July 4. 

“Out of 45, five positive patients who had recovered from the disease and were cleared of Covid-19, and their related close contacts, were allowed to be discharged from the hospital today,” said Dr. Ye Win Tun, medical superintendent of Thandwe Township Hospital, adding that the five patients and their close contacts were from Thandwe and Ngapali. 

Forty Covid-19 patients continue to receive treatment at the township hospital, and no one remains quarantined for close contact with an infected individual. 

Although schools are open in Thandwe Township, few students are attending as many parents are not sending their children to school, worried about the spread of the virus in classrooms. A teacher at a middle school tested positive for Covid-19 on June 24, and three of her family members tested positive shortly thereafter.   

In northern Arakan State, a border guard was among two Covid-19 patients who died on July 3 in Maungdaw town. 

“Two Covid-19 patients died yesterday. A border guard died and later tested positive for Covid-19. The other is from No. 2 Ward,” Dr. Nu Kaythi San, medical superintendent of Maungdaw District General Hospital, told DMG. 

The deceased border guard was a police corporal from a police outpost in Aung Zan village, northern Maungdaw Township, according to data from the border guard police. 

A total of 160 members of the Border Guard Force (BGF) and their family members tested positive for the coronavirus from June 30 to July 2, Dr. Nu Kaythi San said previously. The cluster of infections amounts to a significant share of Arakan State’s growing Covid-19 case count. 

The other July 3 fatality in Maungdaw was a 60-year-old man from Myoma Taung ward who was said to have had comorbidities. 

Three more cases were reported in Maungdaw on July 4, with the total there rising to 167. Two patients recovered from the disease and were discharged from the hospital on Sunday, the Maungdaw Township Health Department said. 

Beginning with an uptick in cases nationally toward the end of May, Myanmar has been grappling with a third wave of coronavirus infections that threatens to dwarf the previous two. The number of confirmed third-wave cases in Arakan State reached 372 as of July 2, with three fatalities statewide as of July 4.