SURKHET, JUNE 17 A woman of Simta Rural Municipality, Surkhet, who committed suicide a few days ago, has tested positive for coronavirus. “The twenty-five-year-old woman of Simta Rural Municipality-8 had returned to Nepal from India on May 25 with her husband and three-year-old daughter. After spending 14 days in a quarantine shelter in Simta itself, she had returned home on June 8. She was found hanging near her home on Monday,” said Simta Rural Municipality Chair Kabindra Kumar KC. The dead body had been taken to Mehalkuna Hospital for post-mortem. According to Karnali Social Development Ministry’s Health Service Division Chief Dr Laxmi Narayan Tiwari, COVID-19 was confirmed in the dead woman during testing done prior to the post-mortem today. “Before they were sent home, we had conducted their rapid diagnostic test and they tested negative,” said District Public Health Office chief Chetannidhi Wagle, adding the family had been told to stay in home-quarantine. The body has been kept at Mehalkuna Hospital, and according to Chief District Officer Hiralal Regmi, it will be disposed of by the Nepali Army. Simta RM chair KC feared the possibility of infection spreading in the community as many people were involved in taking the body to the hospital. “Many people seem to have come in contact with the woman. We’re tracking them and putting them in quarantine,” he said. With this, the total number of post-death COV- ID-19 confirmations has reached four in the province. A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 18, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.