Bhutan Records Its First Death Due To Covid-19

The small country sandwiched between India and China, banned all scheduled commercial flights since March 2020, after the outbreak of the pandemic. According to the government of Bhutan, the Kingdom has seen no foreign tourists for the past several months.

In this file photo taken on August 20, 2020, local residents maintain social distancing as they stand in a queue to buy groceries outside a store during a nationwide lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus at Thimphu in Bhutan.

After isolating for more than 10-months from the ongoing pandemic, the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan on Friday reported its first death due to Coronavirus. The first reported death in the country was of a 34-year-old man, who was suffering from chronic liver disease. He died in a hospital after testing positive for Covid-19, in Thimphu, on December 23. The health ministry announced his death "with immense grief". The small country sandwiched between India and China, banned all scheduled commercial flights since March 2020, after the outbreak of the pandemic. According to the government of Bhutan, the Kingdom has seen no foreign tourists for past several months. The authorities of the Himalayan Kingdom, imposed a rigorous lockdown in December, after a woman who had been abroad developed symptoms of the Covid-19 disease. The woman and her contacts had travelled across the country. According to reports, the number of cases in the country, jumped from 400 to 770 in December. The relatively low 15-17 cases added each day would reassure most countries, but they have shocked Bhutan. "The current outbreak is much bigger than the last outbreak," the health ministry said. The lockdown is so rigorous in Bhutan, people must get permission to travel outside their districts or to go abroad, and in Thimphu and the neighboring district Paro, "special movement" cards are needed just to go to the shops for essentials. Meanwhile, the Bhutan government is talks with India and other countries to get doses of the Coronavirus vaccine. The mountain kingdom in the last 24-hours recorded 12 new cases of Covid-19, with total number of cases standing on 767.