New variant of COVID-19 in Bhutan? Dec 30, 2020
The Health Ministry’s medical analysts are under the suspicion that the present-day coronavirus could be related to the new variant of COVID-19. It was observed that transmission and the spread of the virus today, is totally different compared to the past.
According to research by Lancet, the oldest and the best-known general medical journal in the world, the new variant of the coronavirus is up to 70 per cent more contagious.
However, to confirm that it is the new variant in Bhutan, the Royal Centre for Disease Control (RCDC) will send samples to Bangkok for lab testing.
Safeguarding people’s health has been the global priority amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In Bhutan, emerging lessons show how nutrition and other aspects of health are intricately related to the management of food security during the current crisis, and beyond. The country’s leaders have used moral suasion alongside policy measures to demonstrate that good nutrition need not be a luxury.
Attribution: Om Bhandari, “Safeguarding Food Self-Sufficiency in the Time of COVID-19: Lessons from Bhutan,”
ORF Issue Brief No. 429, December 2020, Observer Research Foundation.
INTRODUCTION
Global trade was already facing disruptions before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to weakened growth and heightened US-China tensions; agriculture commodities were being disproportionately affected.