The Health Ministry of Bhutan on Friday announced that the country recorded its first COVID-19 related death in 10 months, AFP reports. A 34-year-old, who had chronic liver disease, died in a hospital in the capital Thimpu after testing positive for the coronavirus on December 23 last year.

Announcing the death ‘with immense grief’, the health ministry confirmed that the current outbreak is much bigger than the last outbreak.

The Bhutanese government had isolated the country from any foreign contact since 10 months, but COVID-19 cases have been multiplying rapidly. Thimphu had banned virtually all scheduled flights since March and the government said there have been no foreign tourists in the kingdom for several months.

Prime Minister Lotay Tshering on Friday announced that the National COVID-19 Taskforce had revised the protocol for migration of citizens withing the country. 

Authorities imposed a tough lockdown in December after a woman who had been abroad developed symptoms for COVID-19. The woman and her contacts had travelled across the country of 750,000 people. Since early December the number of cases has grown from about 400 to 770. The relatively low 15-17 cases added each day would reassure most countries, but they have shocked Bhutan.

People must get permission to travel outside their districts or to go abroad, and in Thimpu and the neighbouring district of Paro, “special movement” cards are needed just to go to the shops for essentials.

Karma Tenzin, who runs a popular Indian restaurant in the capital, said the lockdown had been hard.

“I am still paying the rent and salaries, we are finding it difficult to make ends meet,” he said.

The government says it is in talks with India and other countries to secure deliveries of coronavirus vaccines as they become available.