American tourist tests positive for Coronavirus after going on cruise for a week in Assam

Amid the increasing Coronavirus scare across Asian and Europian countries, the Kingdom of Bhutan also reported its first case of Coronavirus on Friday. The first case in the Kingdom came to light after a US citizen tested positive. Incidentally, the US citizen had reportedly spent at least a week on the Brahmaputra river cruise in Assam as part of his India tour in February before he flew to Bhutan. 

According to the District Collector of Jorhat (city of Assam) Roshni Korati's statement, the US tourist had travelled to Jorhat city on February 22 and then travelled to Guwahati via the river cruise MV Mahabaahu Brahmaputra on February 23.

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Since then, the river cruise has made its way back to Neematighat in Jorhat. The cruise had over 22 guests and 29 crew members."We are monitoring the issue closely, and are equipped to deal with the situation. Hence, there is no need for panic," Korati in a statement.

As a precautionary measure, the crew and the passengers of MV Mahabahu Brahmaputra cruise, who travelled from February 22-28, have been quarantined. The health team deployed to monitor the situation of the crew and passengers stated that the isolated members are asymptomatic.

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Coronavirus outbreak, 31 positive cases in India

Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on March 6 visited the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi to inspect the preparedness to tackle coronavirus outbreak. Harsh Vardhan visited Terminal-3 of the international airport to take stock of the arrangements made for the screening of passengers coming from the 78 countries that have reported active coronavirus cases. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that it had registered 2,241 new confirmed cases of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) worldwide within the past 24 hours, with 84 people having died, which brought the total death toll to 3,282. The whole number of people, who were diagnosed with COVID-19, has reached 100,000, including 80,565 people in China. India has so far confirmed 31 positive Coronavirus cases. COVID-19 was first detected in China's Wuhan in late December and has since spread across the world. In late January, the WHO declared a global health emergency in light of the epidemic.

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(With inputs from ANI)