The area around the locked gate of Dekiling Tibetan Settlement wears a deserted look, near Dehra Dun, India, on 19 April 2021. Tibet Sun/Contributor
By Lobsang Wangyal
McLEOD GANJ, India, 19 April 2021
The Tibetan settlement of Dekiling has been put under indefinite lockdown after 138 infections of coronavirus cases in the last one week were recorded.
Four elders are on ventilator support, and many others showed mild symptoms like fever, headache, coughing and diarrhoea.
Settlement officer Norbu speaking to Tibet Sun said, “We do not have any serious patients, except for the four elder patients on ventilator. The others only have mild symptoms.”
All the 138 are in quarantine within the settlement, using all the spaces available. The hall, school, and an office room have been turned into temporary quarantine centres. The TB ward of the clinic has all the elders on ventilators.
The cases began after the elections on 11 April. Norbu explained that the sudden spike in the cases could be due to people returning from travels from other states, those who go to Debra Dun city for their day businesses, or houses in close proximity.
When asked about the possibility that the sudden report of infections in the settlement could be due to the the campaign meeting on 31 March held by one of the Sikyong candidates Kaydor Aukatsang, Norbu said that would be untrue.
“During Kaydor la’s campaign, people wore mask and maintained social distancing. I don’t believe the cases came out of that event.”
“We have from the beginning of the pandemic instructed the public to follow the government guidance on staying safe from the virus.”
The lockdown was imposed from 16th of this month at 12 noon. “We initially planned the lockdown till the 22nd, but now we have decided to have the lockdown indefinitely till the number of infections becomes zero,” Norbu said.
Two of the six nurses of the settlement also tested positive, and another wasn’t well. Norbu hired three more nurses; six nurses and volunteers are looking after all the quarantine centres. Three meals a day are served to all the patients.
The Uttarakhand state government health officials have visited the settlement to assess the situation. “Our settlement may be classified as a red zone. They already put a seal on the settlement main gate barring anybody from going in or out,” Norbu said.
“Medicines and RT-PCR tests are provided by the state government,” he added.
Sakya Trichen’s consort Dagmo Tashi Lhakee has provided help to take care of those in quarantine. “Her Eminence provided beds and offered salaries for two extra nurses for a few months,” Norbu said.
Dekiling settlement has about 1,500 Tibetan refugees. A few other neighbouring settlements come under the jurisdiction of the Dekiling settlement officer.
Another settlement, Hunsur in South India, has also reported 18 cases of infections.
The settlement officer Thupten Tsering confirmed the infections to Tibet Sun, and said that all the cases have been put in quarantine.
“We do not have any serious patient. The cases are all asymptomatic. There was one case of death of an 85-year-old man from Covid about a week ago,” Tsering said.
The Central Tibetan Administration data shown at the time of writing this report was 2,011 positive tests in India and Nepal. It wasn’t clear if the figures from these two settlements have been included in this data, which showed the number of Tibetan deaths from Covid-19 in India as 48.
What a vicious parting gift to us from our “beloved” Lobsang Sangay and his puppet Kaydor! Now, Penpa has to clean up the mess left by LS & Kaydor. I really feel sad about those fellow Tibetan patients. It is depressing!
Lobsang Sangay and Kaydor has left mess all over in Tibetan Communities. Look at how many people were infected with Covid 19 due to their visit and Campaign. Now LS instead of tackling this dire situation in Tibetan Communities, he is trying to spread Covid to Western Countries of USA and Canada. Representative Ngodup should tell Sikyong that he should remain in quarantine and do virtual meetings. It is his responsibility otherwise LS will face problems.
Have to admit though the outbreak of covid has got to be due to the heavy campaigning by Kaydor la and his supporters despite the fact that there was already an alarming rise of covid cases in Dehradun and Delhi NCR. It was neglect and superficial on their part to not think about the situation that was going on which only worsened in Dekiling after the election campaign. They could have done it virtually there, really wasn’t any need for such mass gathering. Now it’s no different than Modi conducting mass election rallies amidst high Covid cases. Very disheartening.
Four patients on oxygen support, which is not the same as being on ventilator. None of the patients are on ventilator from what I know.
It’s not a wise idea to blame one another! Either not a time to expect from administration or anyone foremost.. it’s us who has to be extra cautious! Avoid unnecessary activities – including meeting friends, taking part in any socio-political gatherings and campaigns – it’s internet age and make the most of it! Maintain distance and avoid getting into clusters and proper use of mask and hand sanitisation.
The settlement officer is being nice and trying to defend Kaydor. How can we know the infection was not caused by Kaydor? The high number of cases indicates that people were infected by mass gathering, not by one to one meetings. However nicely one tries to defend Kaydor, it is clear, he is responsible for the mass spread of Covid in Tibetan settlements. Kaydor Aukatsang has blood on his hands, we will remembers his lack of care and concern for the welfare of our people. Shame on Kaydor.
I agree with Tenzin Dolma la, it is very irresponsible of the candidate. They should use virtual town hall, if he visit then responsible person should wear the mask and sitting arrangement should be made 6ft accordingly. Our population getting smaller and it makes much smaller too.
138 active covid cases in a community of 1500 is a crisis.
While it will be difficult to prove that this outbreak started with Sikyong candidate’s visit, there is no doubt that the Sikyong and Sikyong candidate must take responsibility for their selfish actions of holding large public rallies during a pandemic. At the time of their visits, public health officials were already issuing warnings of the impending second wave in India.
How are the public to believe in the dangers of Covid-19 when they see their Sikyong holding large compulsory public gatherings in other settlements?
Despite raising covid-19 cases, Sikyong is still traveling and our community leaders are forced to organize meetings and public gatherings. Lobsang Sangay and former Sikyong candidate Kaydor are responsible for spreading infections and covid19 in Tibetan community.
today we have 42 active cases but there are no serious action from the covid committee since people are still going to basket ground around odd hours and restaurants are still open happily and i would blame this clearly to hospital administrator as well as settlement officer.