KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 10

Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai has tested positive for COVID-19, while ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP)’s whip Shanta Chaudhary has been transferred to Intensive Care Unit at Bir Hospital due to Covid-19.

Minister Bhattarai, in a Facebook post this evening, revealed that he tested positive for the respiratory illness with mild symptoms. “I had felt minor fever last evening. So, I underwent test for coronavirus, the result just came positive,” the minister posted in his Facebook post late evening today. Talking to THT, Bhattarai said that he was now staying in home isolation and feeling normal.

Minister Bhattarai had recently visited different districts of Sudurpaschim Province to inaugurate three domestic airports where he addressed large groups of people.

Bhattarai claimed that he had tested negative last Monday before he kicked off visits outside the valley. He also said that he did not know when or from whom he contracted the virus and thus contact tracing was difficult.

Meanwhile, Shanta Chaudhary, has been transferred to the Intensive Care Unit at Bir Hospital after she complained of breathing difficulty. Chaudhary had tested positive for the virus last Monday. She was admitted to a COVID treatment facility where she complained of breathing difficulty.

Kedar Century Director of Bir Hospital said that lawmaker Chaudhary was admitted to the ICU as a measure to ensure her health would not deteriorate. “She is out of danger and like any other patient has only mild symptoms,” Century said.

Chaudhary had, in 2016, been diagnosed with uterine cancer and was afflicted with dengue last year.

A version of this article appears in print on October 11, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.