A major outbreak among Kachin youth has been detected in N'gun La town in Kachin Independence Organisation's (KIO) Brigade 1, northern Kachin State.

According to Col Laphai Hing Wawm, secretary of the KIO's COVID-19 Response and Control Committee, the outbreak began at the town's high school, where some students are housed in a dormitory while others travel from home.

He said 220 students tested positive in the last few days and 128 infections were detected on Sunday, 24 October.

"After finding that a couple people in the school's dormitory had lost their sense of taste, we tested more than 300 people and many of them were positive," he said, explaining that they were planning to test a hundred more students.

Laphai Hing Wawm predicted that the outbreak could of started after the students' parents visited them in their dormitories from late September to early October.

After the outbreak spread to N'gun La, medics are testing all 907 people from 150 families in the town, while those infected have been quarantined, including close contacts. Anyone who's sick is receiving medical attention, he said.

N'gun La is 105 km north of Myitkyina town, between the Maykha and Maylikha rivers, in Sumprabum Township.