Military council giving up on quarantine centres in Sittwe

By DMG 27 Jul 2021

DMG Newsroom
27 July 2021, Sittwe 

Due to widespread coronavirus infections in Arakan State, quarantine centres will be shut down in the state capital Sittwe to focus more on treatment at Covid-19 care centres, according to the Arakan State Administration Council.  

During the first two waves of Covid-19, travellers from other parts of the country were required to stay at quarantine centres upon their arrival in Sittwe. However, due to widespread infections and a shortage of health workers amid the ongoing third wave, only Covid-19 care centres will be opened to treat patients, said the spokesman of the Arakan State Administration Council, U Hla Thein. 

“We register people at the airport and take their body temperatures. We test them for coronavirus and send them to hospital if they are infected. If we are to place people under quarantine, we will have to run many quarantine centres given the number of patients. We have therefore consulted with doctors and decided to run Covid-19 care centres only,” said U Hla Thein. 

Travellers are tested for coronavirus upon arrival at Sittwe Airport. Those infected are sent to hospitals and those who test negative are free to go, he said. 

It is now impossible to run Covid-19 quarantine centres due to widespread infections, said Ko Zaw Zaw Tun from the Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC), a civil society organisation that helped run quarantine centres in the first two waves of the pandemic. 

“The situation is different now. In the past, positive patients and their contacts were placed under quarantine. But now, due to widespread infections, even 100 quarantine centres may not be able to hold them all,” he said. 

Authorities said they were planning to turn an old Sittwe University building into a 150-bed Covid-19 centre, as well as treating 200 patients at Sittwe Hospital. However, no centre on the campus grounds has yet been opened, according to local charities. 

“For the time being, we have neither quarantine centres nor care centres,” said Ko Zaw Zaw Tun. “They don’t have clear plans, and have not issued any clear instructions. How many people can be treated at a hospital? The beds are limited. And [authorities] still allow passenger flights to Sittwe. The number of Covid-19 cases will increase if passenger flights are still allowed.”  

Arakan State recorded 2,343 Covid-19 cases with 120 deaths between May 12 and July 26, according to the state Department of Public Health.