Ten more test positive for COVID-19 in just one day - nine in Sittwe and one in Mrauk-Oo

Ein Soe Hpyu

Narinjara News, 21 August 2020

According to a Ministry of Health and Sports statement released this morning at 8am, ten more people have tested positive for the corona virus, nine in Sittwe and one in Mrauk-Oo.

19 cases have been confirmed in Rakhine in the five days since August 16, when a female bank employee was diagnosed with the virus.

Amongst those who have tested positive include a 14-year-old girl and a 70-year-old man.

"There are so many people I can't say who they are or where it happened," Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the Rakhine State Public Health Department, told Narinjara. “Those we have confirmed are secondary contacts: Family members of bank employees. The people in the four places are the family members of bank employees. We are trying to take them away because they are still at home,” he said.

Dr. Soe Win Paing said that of the nine in Sittwe, one is from Ye Nwe Su ward; five are from Ma Kyi Myaing Ward; one is from Minbar Gyi Road in Bauk Thee Su Ward and one is from Ngway Naddy building on Strand Road. A woman from Mrauk-Oo Township has also tested positive.

Amongst those who tested positive today have been identified as family members of four Sittwe CB Bank employees who came into contact with patient 375. He added that the bank staff did not find the virus in the first test but family members did test positive.

Those found in Sittwe are being treated at Sittwe General Hospital, while the patient from Mrauk-Oo Township will be treated at Mrauk-Oo Hospital.

CB Bank employees were tested for the virus following one bank staffer (patient 375) being diagnosed with the virus on August 16.  Their families have been tested and are under observation at home, according to the Public Health Department.