Virus’s spread affecting banking, police and court system in Arakan State

By DMG 28 Jun 2021

DMG Newsroom
28 June 2021, Thandwe/Maungdaw 

A bank employee, a police lance corporal and four staff from the Thandwe Township Court are among the latest cases of Covid-19 reported in Arakan State as the number of cases statewide has surpassed 100 in recent days.   

Thandwe Township in southern Arakan State has emerged as a virus hotspot, with 25 cases reported there in less than a week. The four township court staff tested positive on June 28, according to Dr. Ye Win Tun, superintendent of Thandwe Township General Hospital, who said all four are in good health. 

A teacher from Thandwe’s Kywe Thauk Kone middle school tested positive for Covid-19 on June 24, and by Monday the number of cases township-wide had reached 25, including three of the teacher’s family members. 

Farther north, a policeman who is a member of the Anti-Narcotics Task Force in Maungdaw was among four people from the township who tested positive on June 27.  

“A police lance corporal was found to be diagnosed with the virus yesterday,” said Dr. Nu Kaythi San, medical superintendent of Maungdaw District Hospital, on June 28. “The new virus patients are a woman from downtown Maungdaw and two others from Kyetyoepyin village who had close contact with the policeman.” 

The police lance corporal lives in the compound of the No. 2 Border Guard Force and had been in contact with a police officer from the local anti-drug task force who tested positive for the virus on Saturday. 

Maungdaw Township has recorded 15 coronavirus cases so far this month. Among them, 12 have been classified as community transmission and are receiving hospital treatment, including an employee of Myanma Economic Bank in Maungdaw town who tested positive on June 27. 

“He had been on leave for one week. He resumed his duties for one or two days after having recovered; then, fell sick again and tested positive for Covid-19 today at the hospital,” an official from Myanma Economic Bank told DMG on June 27. 

Dr. Nu Kaythi San confirmed the case of a bank staffer in Maungdaw, adding that the close contacts of the infected individual had been traced. 

The three cases in Maungdaw that were not identified as community transmission were described as illegal entrants from Bangladesh who have been discharged from the hospital in good health, according to the district Department of Public Health. 

A female Covid-19 patient from Sittwe Township died on Monday morning, marking the first fatality in a third wave of the virus currently hitting Arakan State and several other parts of Myanmar.