(TibetanReview.net, May15’20) – As tens of thousands of stranded Indians return to their homes in Himachal Pradesh with the state government’s permission and facilitation, the Central Tibetan Administration has on May 14 again called on Tibetan residents of Dharamsala in similar straitened situation to stay put rather than returning home so as to avoid the risk of bringing the Covid-19 infection.
Addressing a press briefing, Sikyong Lobsang sangay has said strict order had been issued for those who return home nevertheless, requiring them to contact the Settlement Officer on their arrival to get the supporting letter needed to check into the institutional quarantine facility.
He has expressed “optimism” that the pandemic will peak in May and June (as suggested by the Kolkata-based Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, based on a “bio-computational modelling” study). A Singapore University of Technology and Design’s prediction in late April through mathematical modeling that Covid-19 will end 97 per cent in India around May 21 does not seem likely to come true.
India is presently in the process of greatly relaxing the lockdown restrictions after May 17 as the official wisdom is that while ‘the dream is to have zero cases” “we’ll have to live with Covid-19 for quite some time.”
The World Health Organization also warned just the other day that the novel coronavirus may never go away even after a vaccine is successfully developed and that populations will have to learn to live with it.
Meanwhile the Secretariat of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile has announced May 14 that the 10th, normally bi-annual, session of the 16th Parliament in Exile will be held over Sep 16-24.
