under isolation or quarantine for at least seven days. the prime minister said the situation would be reviewed only after a second pcr test revealed the suspected case to be negative once more. 7 may: to date about 11,000 people have been tested for covid-19 within the country. about 9,000 by rapid tests and 2,400 by pcr tests. over 4,300 have been discharged from quarantine facilities and about 1,500 remain in quarantine. 8 may: the sixth covid-19 case. detected 21 april after returning from the middle east, has now tested negative twice by rt-pcr test on 6 may. and been moved from hospital to de-isolation quarantine in a hotel facility in accordance with bhutan's covid-19 guidelines. she will only be declared recovered after completing 14 days de-isolation quarantine and testing negative again at the end of that period. one covid-19 patient remains in isolation ward at jdwrh hospital. 10 may:two bhutanese returning from the middle-east who were in a quarantine facility at paro have tested positive for covid-19 and been moved to an isolation ward. 11 may: two bhutanese returning from the middle-east (a 25-year-old male and a 27-year-old female) have tested positive for covid-19. they were in a quarantine facility and have been be moved to an isolation ward. 13 may: four bhutanese (2 males, 33 and 32 years old; and 2 females 23 and 26 years old), who returned from the middle-east and were being held in quarantine in thimphu, have tested positive for covid-19 by pcr test and will be transferred to the isolation ward for covid-19 patients at the national referral hospital. 14 may: five more covid-19 positive cases were detected. four of the new cases were women 31, 29, 24 and 27 years old. they had all returned to bhutan from the middle east and were in the quarantine facilities at thimphu and will be moved to the isolation facility. 15 may: one more case of covid-19 was detected in a 29-year-old woman who had returned from doha, qatar and was staying in the quarantine facility at thimphu. 21 may: three individuals confirmed with covid-19 who were under isolation have now tested negative twice (24 hours apart) and so have now been moved to 2 weeks de-isolation quarantine. 22 may: two women who returned from the middle east on 11 may and were in quarantine have now tested positive for covid-19. the health minister, dechen wangmo, said that one of the women earlier showed symptoms of the virus but tested negative at that time. when a second test was conducted, which is the normal procedure, the virus was detected. of the 23 cases so far in bhutan, 7 are male and 16 are female. 17 cases are considered active cases, while six have recovered. to this date 6488 people have been quarantined, with 863 individuals still in quarantine. later in the day, a third person in quarantine also tested positive bringing the total cases to 24 and active cases to 18. 24 may: three more bhutanese, all returned from the middle east and held in quarantine, tested positive today, 2 males 23 and 29 years old and one female 29 years old. two were in a quarantine facility in thimphu and one at paro. they will all be moved to the covid-19 isolation ward at jdwnrh today. 25 may: the republic of korea provided grant aid of us$400,000 to the ministry of health today. out of the total grant, us$200,000 was used to procure test kits which can conduct 17,250 tests. the other half of the grant will be used to support covid-19 response measures. the test kits were handed over by the korea international cooperation agency (koica) in bhutan to the ministry of health this morning. based on experience in korea, koica said mass testing could support bhutan in managing and preventing the spread of covid-19 effectively. 26 may: as the government of india has allowed resumption of domestic air travel from 25 may and train services from 1 june, bhutanese in india who wish to return to the country can now take indian domestic flights to bagdogra or guwahati and trains to new jalpaiguri and alipurduar. upon arrival in bhutan, they will have to report to the relevant covid-19 task force for the mandatory 21-day quarantine. 27 may: a bhutanese woman who returned from new delhi, and was quarantined in phuntsholing has tested positive for covid-19. 28 may: three people (2 females and 1 male) in quarantine have tested positive today and will be moved to into the jdwnrh isolation ward in the evening. this week five more people (4 females and 1 male) who were in the isolation ward have tested negative and have been moved to the de-isolation quarantine facility. as of now 14 people who were in the jdwnrh isolation ward are now in de-isolation after testing negative. 30 may: 10 new positive cases detected in the last 24 hours, 7 female and 3 male all returned from the middle east. the total cases reported in the country so far now stands at 43. the government has asked the public not to be alarmed about the recent spike in cases since all cases detected to date are imported, and all individuals coming into bhutan are kept under mandatory quarantine for 21 days. they say standards and protocols are in place to ensure that every individual leaving the quarantine or de-isolation facilities are free of covid-19. to date, bhutan has no community transmission, and all the cases are imported including the country's first two cases detected in tourists. most cases are detected in bhutanese returning from the middle east. this week more than 500 bhutanese returned home from the middle east, nepal and thailand. june 2020 1 june: four more people (two male and two female) who returned from the middle east on 29 may 2020 and entered the quarantine facilities in thimphu tested positive for covid-19, bringing the total number of covid-19 cases in bhutan to 47. three people who completed their 2-week de-isolation periods were declared as recovered, so bhutan now has 38 active cases of covid-19. 4 june: one new case, a bhutanese male returning from the middle east, was confirmed, taking the total positive cases in the country to 48, and the total under isolation to 211. two more individuals were declared as having recovered, taking the total recovered to 11. both tested negative on rt-pcr upon completing their two-week de-isolation periods. two patients were moved from an isolation ward to a de-isolation facility after testing negative twice, taking the total number of people under de-isolation to 16. 138 more bhutanese people, including some from qatar, bahrain, usa, uk, brazil, netherlands and italy who flew via doha, arrived at paro international airport, and were all taken into quarantine. 7 june: eleven new cases, six female and five male, were confirmed in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative total of cases to 59. all 11 cases were detected while these people were in quarantine and are returnees from or via the middle east. two individuals were moved from isolation wards to de-isolation facilities after testing negative twice, taking the total number of individuals under de-isolation to 23. three individuals were declared as having recovered after completing a two-week period of de-isolation and then testing negative on rt-pcr, taking the total cumulative figure for recoveries to 14. 10 june: three individuals, all of whom were returned from the middle east and were in a quarantine facility, tested positive for covid-19, taking the cumulative total of positive cases to 62. august 2020 10 august: a 27-year-old woman who completed her quarantine tested positive after she moved back home, resulting in a national lockdown and contact tracing lasting as much as 72 hours all the way from paro, thimphu, wangdue, tsirang and gelephug. however, all the primary and secondary contacts were found to be negative on rt-pcr testing. 16 august: a four year old baby daughter of a worker who worked in the mini-port in phuntsholing tested positive for covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total of confirmed cases to 133. the nation declared this location to be a red zone and put all borders and residence under strict surveillance. the government started to supply all groceries and foods supply through a contact point with the help of civilian personnel. uniquely, his majesty jigme khesar namgyel wangchuck commanded the royal bhutan army to start feeding stray animals on the streets so they would not go hungry during the current period of national lockdown. 21 august: the border roads organisation unit in phuntsholing, 12 defence personnel tested positive. this created a state of panic in the area. strict lockdown and other containment measures were introduced. the area was declared a red zone and any movement of unauthorised persons was strictly prohibited. 26 august: after the phuntsholing covid-19 rise incident, his majesty jigme khesar namgyel wangchuck and the government announced a mass covid-19 test by the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr) process will take place. he said it will be introduced from 26 august 2020, in all the indian as well as foreign diplomatic units. 30 august: after mass covid-19 testing in bhutan, reports came in stating there were 27 more positive cases reported in phuntsholing. a large-scale strict lockdown was implemented. 31 august: his majesty jigme khesar namgyel wangchuck totally sealed the indian military training team and the border roads organisation, as well as other foreign diplomacies, for 10 days. september 2020 11 september: the royal government of bhutan extended the lockdown on foreign missions until 17 september 2020. due to covid-19 cases gradually rising, panic was created in the minds of common citizens. october 2020 19 october: the government of bhutan introduced flights from and to india and thailand. all flights are organized and carried out by druk air. january 2021 7 january: dechen wangmo confirmed the first death from covid-19 in bhutan on this date. the victim was 34 years old and had chronic liver disease. march 2021 bhutan's covid-19 vaccination campaign began on 27 march, using astrazeneca vaccines gifted by the indian government. in only a single week, over 85% of bhutan's adult population has received their first vaccine jab, a rate far faster than any other country in the world. the king of bhutan, jigme khesar namgyel wangchuck, is reported to be waiting to be vaccinated "only after every eligible person in the country received their shots safely." omicron wave the first case of new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2) b.1.1.529, (omicron) in bhutan was reported on 14 january 2022. since then cases have been reported in all the 20 districts with significant increase in numbers. vaccination after a national vaccination campaign began on 27 march 2021, the government of bhutan said on 9 april 2021 that 473,715 adults had received their first dose of the oxford–astrazeneca covid-19 vaccine, equivalent to 60% of bhutan's total population. second doses started to be administered on 20 july and within one week, had reached 95.6% per cent of eligible adults. india donated the first doses of astrazeneca vaccine, but was unable to provide second doses due to their own severe outbreaks. second doses were provided by other countries - usa sent 500,000 shots of moderna, more than 400,000 astrazeneca shots were donated by denmark (250,000 doses), croatia and bulgaria, and 5000 shots of pfizer were sent by covax, which comprises gavi, the vaccine alliance, the world health organisation and the coalition for epidemic preparedness innovation. more than 3000 health workers participated in the vaccine drive and 1200 vaccination centres across the country ensured efficient delivery. they were assisted by a network of 22,000 citizen volunteers called "desuups". these ordinary citizens volunteered during the pandemic to go door to door to raise awareness, dispel misinformation, help conduct mass screening and testing and carry vaccines across the country's mountainous terrain. will parks, the unicef representative for bhutan, called the country "a beacon of hope to a region that is on fire." impact as part of its responses to the pandemic, the government created a one-year income grant to reduce the impact of a loss of income. banks in the country moved to forgive loan interest rates for six months. the government of bhutan also allotted