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Published on : Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Nepal’s tourism minister Yogesh Bhattarai has tested positive for COVID-19.
Bhattarai, 54, also holding the culture and aviation portfolios, has become the first minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to contract the virus, which has so far infected more than 100,000 people in the Himalayan nation. In a Facebook post, the minister has requested all those who came in contact with him to be on alert.
The minister said that he has no other complications other than a little fever.
Last Thursday, Bhattarai met Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra and discussed ways for tourism promotion in both countries, including increased flights to remote locations and revival of historically important tourism circuits. However, the health condition of the Indian envoy is not known.
In February, Bhattarai, for boosting tourism, had said that the world needs to know that Nepal is free from the dark shadows of corona virus. His statement came after all the 175 Nepali nationals evacuated from China, who had been kept in quarantine, tested negative for the corona virus.
He had also urged the government agencies to speed up efforts to uphold Nepal as a safe tourist destination. Bhattarai is the eighth close aide of Oli to test positive for COVID-19 after the Prime Minister’s personal physician, personal photographer and media expert.
His close aides – Surya Thapa, Rajan Bhattarai, Indra Bhandari and Bishnu Rimal have also contracted the virus.
Tags: Nepal tourism minister