Dharamshala: Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay chaired two virtual meetings today, first with Tibetan Settlement officers regarding the requirement of aid provisions and problems they were facing in the battle against the COVID-19 crisis, and similarly, with healthcare workers.
The meeting was coordinated by the Department of Health, led by Kalon Choekyong Wangchuk, Secretaries, and heads of the task force committee.
Settlement officers of 38 Tibetan settlements from India, Nepal and Bhutan attended the initial meeting, while 39 health centres from India, including the Snow Lion organisation from Nepal, took part in the second.
Sikyong was updated about the COVID-19 preventive measures by the concerned settlement officers who brought up concerns relating to the provision of funds for quarantine facilities and distribution of Tibetan medicine supply, the quarantine procedure to follow as more stranded Tibetans return to their homes and make institutional quarantine more difficult with limited capacity and on the resumption of business activity in settlements.
Sikyong answered each of them in turn, for aid provisions he directed them to contact the relevant departments, mostly dealing with Health and Home who have designed policies specifically to combat the crisis of the pandemic. He emphasised on quarantine until an individual tested negative on the swab test. On the resumption of business activity in settlements, he advised against it amidst COVID-19 cases peaking and risk of transmission among Tibetan society. He appealed to all Tibetans the collective responsibility to protect not just the Tibetan community but also the Indian community too.
In the second meeting, Sikyong spoke to the healthcare workers at the frontline, asking about the problems they faced and the requirements of hospital supplies.
He commended their dedicated service to the community amidst the COVID-19 health crisis, hailing it as the true realisation of Buddhist principles and urged them to continue down that path until the crisis subsides.
Sikyong similarly commended the Health Department’s tireless efforts to prevent the transmission among the Tibetan community.
