(TibetanReview.net, Feb10’20) – Although Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) has only one confirmed Wuhan coronavirus infection, which was reported on Jan 29, with no report on any new suspected case, China has cancelled large-scale activities on Tibetan New Year celebrations, which begin on Feb 24, in capital Lhasa. The ban was aimed to protect people’s health and avoid the risk of cross-infection caused by gatherings, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Feb 10, citing the Buddhist association of Lhasa.
The association has claimed that the ban was proposed by monasteries in the city.
The report said other religious activities such as praying for the Tibetan New Year will be held inside monasteries in Lhasa, with the time being required to be shortened and the scale downsized.
An earlier Xinhua report said Feb 9 that the region had set up another laboratory able to conduct nucleic acid testing for coronavirus. With this addition for disease control and prevention in the city of Nagqu (Tibetan: Nagchu), the TAR now had five such labs, the report cited the regional health commission as saying.
The only reported suspected cases in the TAR were those of the 32 people who were known to have had contact with the only reported case of novel coronavirus pneumonia infection in the region. All of them were discharged on Feb 8 from the different hospitals in which they were put under observation and found to be free of the infection, reported China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Feb 8.
The patient with the confirmed infection was reported to be still under treatment.
