350 monks in Yangon have Covid-19
YANGON: A total of 350 monks have tested positive for Covid-19 in Yangon and have since been quarantined at two centres in the region.
A Yangon regional legislator from Insein township, U Wai Phyo Han, said 75 of the monks who tested positive were from the Yar Ma Parirati monastery in Insein.
According to the Myanmar Times, the monastery was big enough to accommodate about 600 monks.
“The Sayadaws are very strict and ban the entry and exit of people into the monastery,” said U Wai.
Major General Zaw Min Tun, the chief of the military’s True News Information Team, said the X monks were being treated at the Defence Services Institute of Paramedical Science in Hmawbi township.
Aside from the 75 infected monks in Insein, another 275 monks tested positive for Covid19 last Friday.
General Zaw said the 275 monks were undergoing treatment at Insein’s Min Dhamma Sasana Beikman religious building, which had been converted
into an emergency hospital.
Up to last Thursday, the Health and Sports Ministry said the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country was 7,827, more than two thirds of which were in Yangon.
The Covid-19 outbreak in the country started in Rakhine State on Aug 16, which now has the second highest number of cases
at 1,216.
However, Rakhine health officials said the infection rate in the town had since stabilised in the past two weeks.
X Zaw said the military’s medical teams, in coordination with the Health Ministry, began treating 150 Covid-19 civilians last Friday.