Bhutan has reported its first COVID-19 fatality some 10 months after initially detecting the virus and managing to keep the disease under control by largely sealing off the entry points.
Bhutan’s health ministry in a statement on Thursday said a 34-year-old man with chronic liver disease and renal failure succumbed to the infection at a hospital in the capital Thimphu.
As per reports, Bhutan has reported 767 Covid-19 cases, having conducted a little over 300,000 tests since it detected the first infection in an American tourist last March.
Taking swift measures, the Himalayan nation of some 750,000 people closed itself to visitors and imposed a mandatory quarantine for everyone returning from abroad.
Since then, Bhutan has kept its borders sealed, enforced lockdowns twice, intensified testing and screening at entry points, including at its only international airport at Paro.
The country is currently reporting 13 new infections on average each day, around 56% of the peak that it reached in late December.
