The landlocked Kingdom of Bhutan has vaccinated over 63% of its population against the coronavirus in about two weeks. This makes Bhutan one of the fastest vaccination programs in the world, crossing The United States, United Kingdom, and Bahrain.
Bhutan is a small country east of the Himalayas, it has a population of around 754,000.
Although India had donated a generous amount of AstraZeneca vaccine to Bhutan back in January of this year, the distribution of the vaccine did not start until the 27 of March. Ninda Dema, a woman who is born in the year of the monkey, was the first person to get the vaccine out of all the Bhutanese people.
This small country has only 376 doctors, and about 3,000 full-time healthcare workers, which is an extremely small number to help against the coronavirus pandemic that the world is still suffering from nowadays.
How Did They Do It?
The small population of the country played a big part in the fast vaccination program, but it was not the only thing, the strong public healthcare planning, and the trust that the public has in their authority are also factors in this success.
The minister of Bhutan associated the success with the guidance of the king, and the absence of vaccine hesitancy of the public. But what is probably the most important factor of this scheme, is the citizen volunteers, also known as the “desuups”.
The “desuups” helped a great deal in immunizing more than 63% of the Himalayan kingdom’s citizens in just two weeks.
Although Bhutan only had less than 1000 cases and only one death, until this point, they took the pandemic very seriously initiating lockdown since the beginning and taking extreme measures to ensure that the citizens are safe and healthy.
“Desuups”, The Guardians of the Peace
The “desuups” means the Guardians of the Peace, they are a group of citizen volunteers from all parts and classes of Bhutan. They had established cold chain storage for the vaccine to be delivered safely to all people.
They had delivered the AstraZeneca vaccine to the healthcare centers, and the 1,200 vaccination sites spread around the country.
Furthermore, the “desuups” had to ensure that the citizens had been reported for their vaccination appointments. Also, they educated the people about Covid-19 protocols, such as wearing face masks and keep social distance.
A team of four medical staff and six desuups, armed with combat boots and emergency medical kits, was able to vaccinate 6 mount-side villages in a record time.
When the snow had made it difficult for the desuups to continue their journey by foot, the government sent helicopters to help them resume their way around the country. They were also able to pay home visits to some of the people, who could not reach the vaccination sites and give them the vaccine in their homes.
In addition to that, the volunteers were responsible for carrying and distributing oxygen tanks to the sites, as a safety measure just in case some villagers experienced any side effects due to the vaccine dose.
They were able to vaccinate around 93% of Bhutan’s eligible adults, which equals about 63% of the whole population of the kingdom, an achievement many resourceful and rich countries could not make happen.
Moreover, they were able to convince the villagers, who did not show up on time for their appointments because they were worried about the side effects, to take the vaccine, by lecturing them on the benefit of such a step on the community health and well-being.
The Outstanding Achievement
In about 2 weeks, more than 63% of the Bhutanese people had received their first dose of the vaccine, which India had donated to its neighboring country. Making Bhutan the sixth-highest rates country in the world to achieve such success.
In addition to the vaccine, India had also donated medicines, face masks, and testing equipment to help fight against the global pandemic.
More than 85% of adults had received the first dose of the vaccine within one week. The formal vaccination campaign was scheduled to last just one week, but the vaccine is still available in some healthcare centers for people who did not have the chance to receive their dose yet.
The helicopters were a big help in the vaccination program of the kingdom, in which they helped distributing the vaccine around the country in a short time. Without the choppers, the desuups would have taken so much time and effort to deliver the vaccine and reach all the remote villages on foot.
It is a wonder how one of the least developed countries in the world, and one of the poorest were able to succeed what other powerful and rich countries failed to do.
The Bhutan experiment proved how much the trust between the public and its authority is important, and how essential is a cooperation between all the elements of a country to make things work even with the weakest possibilities.
Written by – Leen Alrababah.
Edited by - Akanksha Sharma
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