Tibet Travel: Lhasa News on Covid 19
Since it has already been 12 days after the COVID 19 has been spreading in Tibet Autonomous Region. Shigatse and Lhasa city has been completely shut down. These two are the most important destinations when the travelers travel to Tibet. Lhasa is the most and first destination of the most of the travelers when they travel to Tibet and Shigatse is the second largest city of Tibet and it is the must stop city when the tourists travel to Mt Kailash or travel to Mt Everest or to the border between Nepal and Tibet.
The first case of COVID 19 was found in Purang county in Tibet which is one of the famous counties in Ngari region where it used to have kingdoms and many very important monasteries and historical sites. Nowadays, it is another border between Nepal and Tibet and when the tourists travel to Tibet from west Nepal, they cross Purang border and travel to Mt Kailash. The distance from Purang border to Mt Kailash is only around 120km. Just after one hour and half from Purang county, you can see Mt Kailash and the most famous two lakes, Mansarovar and Rakshastal lake respectively.
The latest news of COVID 19 in Lhasa on Aug 16 was published that there were 218 asymptomatic infection on that day but there was not a single confirmed case that day so until now, there are 1283 asymptomatic infection and among them, five of them were already discharged from the hospital. Sofar, there are 32 confirmed cases in Lhasa and 195 confirmed cases in Tibet Autonomous Region.
Before the COVID 19 was spread in Tibet, it was reported more than 60000 domestic tourists were traveling in Tibet and till now there are around 6000 tourists who are still in Tibet where some of them have been quarantined and some of them could not travel back since their hotel is located in the high risk area.
The fist lock down of the Lhasa city was from 12th Aug till 15th Aug morning and it has been extended to 18th Aug in the morning. The lock down is continued and probably extended to the end of Aug. All the schools, government offices, private companies were completely closed and people were not allowed to exit their residential quarters.
Sofar, through the government’s great support and hard work, the people are getting enough supplies and have no problem to stay at home. Let’s wish that the COVID 19 will end up in the roof of the world finally.
Since Tibet did not have COVID for the last two and half years except only the case that was confirmed from a Chinese tourist who entered to Tibet when the COVID was beginning in Wuhan province in mainland China. We were really hope that Tibet is only place where COVID did not appear but in the end COVID 19 came to Tibet after almost three years of roaming around the world.
If Tibet remained a pure place where there was no COVID, we were really hoping that Tibet will be opened to foreign tourists in the end of 2022 but the hope and plan was again destroyed. Many of our beloved travelers have been waiting for almost three years to travel to Tibet. I hope sooner, there will be chance to bring everything back to normal. Let’s pray to the GOD. Good luck all from Tibet.
