NEPALGUNJ, AUGUST 9 At least 14 COVID patients have gone out of contact due to lack of coordination among Banke Health Office, district laboratory and local levels in Banke. According to Banke Health Office, the missing patients had tested positive for COVID-19 using polymerase chain reaction method in the past two days. While three of them were diagnosed with the contagion at Bheri Hospital yesterday, 11 tested positive for the pathogen today. Nepalgunj Sub-metropolis Officer Ram Bahadur Chand at the Health Office, however, expressed ignorance about the incident. Swab collection without personal details, sending people home without analysing lab reports and ineffective contact tracing has increased the risk of COV- ID spreading at the community level. Meanwhile, Nepalgunj has been sealed till August 27 and Nepali Army has been deployed to the sub-metropolis. A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 10, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.