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Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/25/bhutan-king-treks-covid-19-death
After one COVID death, Bhutan king treks nation to stop another
For 14 months, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck has been travelling by foot, car and horse to oversee pandemic measures in his tiny kingdom.
25 Jun 2021
Wearing a baseball cap and knee-length traditional Gho robe, carrying a backpack, Bhutan’s king has walked through jungles infested with leeches and snakes, trekked mountains and quarantined several times in a hotel in the capital.
For 14 months, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck has been travelling by foot, car and horse to remote hamlets to oversee measures to protect his tiny kingdom of 700,000 from the coronavirus outbreak that has flared up in neighbouring India.
The effect of the 41-year-old king’s excursions is evident in a COVID-19 death toll of just one for the nation nestled between India and China in the eastern Himalayas.
“When the king travels for miles and knocks … to alert people about the pandemic, then his humble words are respected and taken very seriously,” said Lotay Tshering, the country’s prime minister.
“His Majesty’s presence is far more powerful than just issuing public guidelines,” Tshering told Reuters news agency.
His presence assures people they are not alone in their fight against the pandemic, the prime minister said.
Tshering, a practising urologist, often accompanies the Oxford-educated king for trips near the porous border shared with India, where a second wave of the pandemic more than doubled the death toll over the last two months...
After one COVID death, Bhutan king treks nation to stop another
For 14 months, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck has been travelling by foot, car and horse to oversee pandemic measures in his tiny kingdom.
25 Jun 2021
Wearing a baseball cap and knee-length traditional Gho robe, carrying a backpack, Bhutan’s king has walked through jungles infested with leeches and snakes, trekked mountains and quarantined several times in a hotel in the capital.
For 14 months, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck has been travelling by foot, car and horse to remote hamlets to oversee measures to protect his tiny kingdom of 700,000 from the coronavirus outbreak that has flared up in neighbouring India.
The effect of the 41-year-old king’s excursions is evident in a COVID-19 death toll of just one for the nation nestled between India and China in the eastern Himalayas.
“When the king travels for miles and knocks … to alert people about the pandemic, then his humble words are respected and taken very seriously,” said Lotay Tshering, the country’s prime minister.
“His Majesty’s presence is far more powerful than just issuing public guidelines,” Tshering told Reuters news agency.
His presence assures people they are not alone in their fight against the pandemic, the prime minister said.
Tshering, a practising urologist, often accompanies the Oxford-educated king for trips near the porous border shared with India, where a second wave of the pandemic more than doubled the death toll over the last two months...