Containment of a local outbreak of COVID-19 through community isolation and quarantine in rural Bhutan: An experience

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Bhutan experienced the third and a larger outbreak of COVID-19 in the summer of 2021, with huge surge of cases from several districts on the southern border. A remote sub-district of Jomotshangkha in Samdrup Jongkhar district, was suddenly caught with a large number of cases in May 2021. All the COVID-19 cases during the outbreak were successfully managed at the community level or with home isolation without the need for sophisticated infrastructure and specialized manpower. In this article, we discuss the advantages of community-level management of COVID-19 in the context of Bhutan’s health system.

Keywords

• Bhutan;
• Disease outbreak;
• Health services;
• Pandemic;
• Public health;
• Quarantine