Minister of Culture Tourism and Civil aviation Yogesh Bhattarai informed that there is no reported infection of corona virus in Nepal, whereas Government of Nepal and its all machineries are well equipped and are staying fully alert specially at all Immigration Points and Tribhuvan International Airport.

"All necessary precautions and preventive measures have been adopted," said Minister Bhattarai. "He also shared among the participants about his meeting with Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi the previous day who conveyed appreciations from Chinese Government to Government of Nepal for the precautionary measures and necessary preparedness to fight the problem. Ambassador Yanqi, according to Minister Bhattarai, expressed confidence that this disease would come under control within few weeks in China and it would not much affect the target of Chinese tourists in Nepal for the VNY2020 campaign.

In the briefing, Minister Bhattarai informed that a high level coordination team had been formed of Ghanashyam Upadhyay, Joint Secretary of Tourism Ministry; Dandu Raj Ghimire, Director General of Department of Tourism and Dr. Dhananjay Remi, Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board. This team would coordinate with concerned agencies and embassies on regular basis to share updates and take necessary actions regarding the corona threat on tourism industry. Minister Bhattarai instructed all concerned to make awareness campaigns among tourism stakeholders and general public about this threat.

He invited all the international travelers to come to Nepal without any hesitation or a slightest fear whatsoever regarding the coronra virus in Nepal as Nepal is corona free zone, and the destination that offers lifetime experiences. He appealed all to promote Visit Nepal Year 2020 with full energy and strength.

A briefing on Novel Corona Virus in the presence of Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai was held on Saturday, 1st February 2020. Present in the meeting were Tourism Secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari, NTB CEO Dr. Dhananjay Regmi, high level Government officials, presidents and representatives of tourism and airlines associations of Nepal.

Joint Secretary of Ministry of Health Dr. Sagar Dahal gave a presentation on the latest updates of the symptoms, spread of the virus in China and other parts of the world and the measures taken by Government of Nepal to contain the disease. Dr. Dahal informed, "there is no serious threat of the virus in Nepal as only one case detected positive of the virus has been cured and he is now in good health". Dr. Dahal added, "World Health Organization (WHO) has been furnishing updates of the status on regular basis and this information has been linked to Ministry of Health to ensure single window information mechanism". Tourism and airlines representatives updated about their precautionary measures on their parts.