A 76-year-old tourist from the United States tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) in Bhutan on Thursday night, triggering alarm in Assam where he spent a considerable time before visiting the Himalayan country.
The Bhutan government confirmed the COVID-19 case on Friday morning.
The Prime Minister’s Office in capital Thimphu said the man and his 59-year-old partner reached the country from the Paro International Airport after boarding a Drukair flight from Guwahati on March 2. Of the 10 passengers in the flight, eight were Indian nationals.
Thimphu also informed New Delhi that the U.S. tourist toured India from February 21 to March 1 after starting his travel from Washington DC on February 18.
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“At the Paro International Airport, the patient’s health declaration form was assessed. He had indicated ‘negative’ against all conditions. He did not have any sign of fever,” a statement issued by the Bhutan government said. The tourist, however, visited the Jigme Dorji Wangchuk National Referral Hospital around 3 p.m. upon reaching Thimphu, complaining of bloated abdomen and nausea. He was suffering from chronic hypertension but did not show any flu symptoms.
He went to the hospital again on March 3 with an upset stomach and diarrhoea, the statement said. He returned from a trip to the country’s Punakha and visited the hospital for the third time on March 5 with “fever, sore throat, cough and shortness of breath”.
He tested positive for COVID-19 after being kept under observation at a designated flu clinic.
Went on cruise
Assam has particularly been alarmed by the itinerary of the U.S. couple conveyed by the Centre. The two had spent much of their time in Assam and had gone on a seven-day Brahmaputra river cruise that included a stay at a resort in the Kaziranga National Park.
“There were two other foreigners with the U.S. couple on the ship that sailed on February 24 with 35 crew members, none of whom showed any signs of infection. The other two foreigners returned to their country. The ship was fumigated once the group checked out and the new group of 22 foreigners checked in to start sailing on March 1,” said Sanjay Basu, who heads the firm that runs the cruise Mahabahu in collaboration with the Assam Tourism Development Corporation.
He added that the cruise has a paramedic and an Assam government medical team would be checking everyone on board at the next stop.
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Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the government would trace all the places the tourist had been to as well as the people he might have been in close contact with. “We are following all precautionary measures according to the Centre’s notice,” he added.
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Ramesh Kumar, Director of Guwahati’s Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, said that the Airport Health organisation has been on the job of identifying the people who travelled in Drukair flight with the U.S. tourist and possibly came in contact with the man. Airport officials denied any laxity in screening passengers. “In all probability, he tested negative on the day of flying out,” an official said, declining to be quoted.
