Province 5 on high alert as 17 more test positive for coronavirus

Province 5 has been placed on high alert after 17 people tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday and Sunday.

A man from Rupandehi, who had been working at tailor shops in Gandhinagar, India, was said to have transmitted the virus to others. The tailor worker had reached the province at 1pm on April 7 from his workplace in Gandhinagar.

He entered Nepali territory unhindered. He was quarantined on arrival at home. Now, he has been kept in isolation in Butwal after he was tested positive for the Covid-19, it is learnt. His swabs were tested at the National Public Health Laboratory, Teku, Kathmandu.

A meeting of the security committees of all the districts of the State decided to step up security and alertness measures at the transit points with India following the confirmation of the coronavirus infection, said the Province Police Office’s spokesperson Nawaraj Pokharel. “The province’s borders with India have been sealed off completely,” he said.

The detection of infection cases in two days has left local people in the area including Marchawar and Butwal terrified.

“Ensuring nobody infected with coronavirus crosses into Nepal from India is a big challenge facing us. We at the borders are terrified,” said a local Ghana Shyam Gupta of Lumbini-10. Another infected woman, 25, of Kothimai in Rupandehi is receiving treatment at Butwal-based corona hospital.
Meanwhile, an all-party meeting decided to close Nepalgunj-1 following the confirmation of 16 cases on Saturday and Sunday, said ward chair Pramod Rijal. Mayor of Nepalgunj Sub-metropolitan City Dhawal Shamsher Rana and ward chair of Nepalgunj-9 Bishnu Bahadur Lama asked local people to take cautions and stay home at this tough situation.

Of the 90 samples tested for the virus at Bheri Hospital Nepalgunj on Saturday, 15 returned positive results. The tests were conducted after a 60-year-old man was tested positive for the virus on Friday. The infected were in contact with the man. The infected man had been staying at a mosque in the area. Swabs of four suspected people were collected on Sunday pending results. Fifteen infected people were admitted to a corona hospital, Khajura, on Sunday.
RSS