The remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, known for embracing gross national happiness and outlawing television until 1999, has now made the unusual decision to reverse a ban on the sale of tobacco, blaming the coronavirus.

When Bhutan closed its frontier with India earlier this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, under-the-counter tobacco prices soared fourfold as the traffickers found it harder to get into the country.

Some continued to sneak in, however, and on August 12 a Bhutanese worker handling goods coming in from India tested positive for the virus in the border town of Phuentsholing.

This prompted a rethink from the government of Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, a qualified doctor who still practises at weekends. His administration lifted the decade-old ban on tobacco sales to temper demand for the smuggled cigarettes and, in theory, lessen the risk of cross-border contagion.