Panic gripped Tibetans and other residents of Dharamshala, abode of the Dalai Lama in Himachal Pradesh, when 160 of the 350 monks at Gyuto Tantric monastery tested positive for Covid. The first case was reported on February 14, soon after Losar, the Tibetan new year. Medical teams are probing how the infection reached the monks who rarely step out. The 86-year-old Dalai Lama too had quarantined himself and came out only for the first dose of the Covid vaccine. Kangra deputy commissioner Rakesh Prajapati says Tibetans will be vaccinated “as per guidelines and protocols framed for the local population”. Some monks who checked in at the monastery a fortnight back had travelled to Delhi and Karnataka, but tested negative on arrival in Dharamshala. They are being tested again. According to a report by Dharamshala’s chief medical officer, the monastery in-charge and a nurse had visited a bank in McLeodganj. They are being tested too. The administration is relieved that the infection is confined to just one monastery, which is away from other Tibetan establishments in McLeodganj and other parts of Kangra district. The condition of the infected monks, including the only one admitted at a Covid care centre, is said to be stable.
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By Ashwani Sharma in Shimla
