Health officials, Tatmadaw going to a village in Kutkai to inspect unconfirmed COVID-19 cases

21 March 2020
Health officials, Tatmadaw going to a village in Kutkai to inspect unconfirmed COVID-19 cases
Yangon City Development Committee members take the temperature of people as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 novel coronavirus at a market in Yangon on March 21, 2020. Photo: Ye Aung Thu/AFP

There is unconfirmed news that three people died after falling into the ground in a faint in Donlone Village in Kutkai in northern Shan State, so the Myanmar military, health and administrative officials have gone to the village to investigate, according to the Northern Shan State Health Department.

A nearby village informed the authorities about the unconfirmed news in the morning on 20 March (Friday), so officials went to the Donlone Village on Friday night.

Northern Shan State Health Department chief Dr. Tin Maung Nyunt told MIzzima: “Health officials, Tatmadaw teams and general administrative teams went there yesterday. They have not arrived in the village. The village is far away. They will have to walk through Mone Sin, and Man Tak. They will have to walk for five hours. They will arrive in the village this evening (Saturday evening). We still do not have phone contacts with them, so we still don’t know the real situation.” 

He said that although the health department have been asking questions to the teams that went to the nearest village, but the exact situation is still unknown as of 11 am on 21 March. Dr. Tin Maung Nyunt also added that they would know and be able to confirm the real situation only at night on 21 March. 

According to the unconfirmed news, the three workers who died had come back from China.

In other news, a 20-year-old man, who recently returned from China to Hsipaw in northern Shan State, was suspected of contracting COVID-19, but he tested “negative”, according to the Health and Sports Ministry. 

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases across the world reached 277,500 and the global death toll now exceeds 11,000.