By HSENG LENG / SHAN

Five new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in two Shan State townships on Friday.

Four of the positive patients—one man and three women—were in Tachileik, eastern Shan State, after seven local people were tested once it was determined they had been in contact with another positive patient. They had traveled to the town of Kengtung a woman who was later found to be infected with the coronavirus.

Dr. Lin Htut Oo, deputy head of eastern Shan State’s health department, said that the woman had worked in a Tachileik hotel but quit on November 16. At least 17 hotel staff are now being quarantined, and will be tested on Saturday for the coronavirus.

In the northern Shan State township of Nawngkhio, an individual tested positive at a medical checkpoint after returning from Mandalay, bringing the total number of patients in the township to 12.

“We don’t have enough doctors in our hospital. We have many difficulties. There are only two doctors in the Nawngkhio hospital,” one of these two doctors, Dr. Naing Win Aung, told SHAN.

Nawngkhio town has two quarantine centers, in a high school and primary school, respectively. At least five people who had contact with the most recently identified COVID-19 positive patient are now being monitored there.

The Ministry of Health and Sports has confirmed 86,633 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, with 65,972 recoveries and 1,865 deaths as of November 27. A total of 360 cases of the coronavirus have been identified in Shan State.