In clarification to our report about the death of a Tibetan due to coronavirus, the local Tibetans have informed of no such coronavirus case or death. Our report was based on the press briefing of the COVID-19 Task Force of CTA on Friday. However, the latest updates inform of a misunderstanding from the press briefing.
According to the President of Auckland Tibetan Association, Wangdue Tsering, there is no coronavirus cases in their Tibetan community. The information briefed about a death of a Tibetan woman from New Zealand due to Coronavirus is incorrect and miscommunicated.
“CTA’s Coronavirus Task Force press briefing held on 3rd April 2020 carried the news of the death of a Tibetan woman from New Zealand on 30th March due to the virus. We would like to clarify that this information is incorrect and there was no such incident. It was a case of miscommunication and going forward we would request double-checking with office bearers before publishing sensitive information. We have confirmed this with the Office of Tibet, Australasia.” President of Auckland Tibetan Association wrote in the clarification letter.
The clarification further assured that all Tibetans in the country are keeping well and self-isolation in line with the directive from the Government of New Zealand. Till now there is around 824 cases of coronavirus infections with only one death throughout the country.
Therefore we would like update out tally of tracking the coronavirus infections in the Tibetan diaspora. There are a total of 6 coronavirus infections and two of them have lost their lives till now. The Task Force informed that the Tibetans have been instructed to follow all precautions and they are tracking around 1600 Tibetans with travel histories under home quarantine across 37 Tibetan refugee settlements in India.
Coronavirus pandemic originated from China in December last year and it spread outside the country like a wild fire. The pandemic has now infected more than one million people across the world. It has claimed more than 59,000 human lives and overwhelmed the health systems in most of the countries.
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