Rapid Diagnostic Test begins on residents of Sun City Apartments

KATHMANDU: Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) has begun today on residents of Pepsicola-based Sun City Apartments after two of its residents tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

Testing through the RDT method began at the Apartments on Wednesday morning considering the risk of virus spread, stated Kageshwari Manohara Municipality.

Residents of Block A will be tested today in the first phase as the two residents -- a woman, 81, and her son, 58 -- who tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, live there. Priority will be given to senior citizens and those with underlying health conditions. It has been learnt that 242 people reside in this block of the residential apartments.

There are five blocks in Sun City Apartments, which house 475 families. As many as 1,800 people live in these blocks.

Three members of a family, including the woman, her son and his wife were admitted to the isolation ward of Patan Hospital on Monday after they tested positive for the disease during rapid diagnostic tests performed on them.

Their throat swabs were then sent to the National Public Health Laboratory, where Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method was used to confirm the results of RDT. The PCR tests generated positive result for the 81-year-old woman and her son, while the result of the daughter-in-law is awaited, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.

The three had returned from the United Kingdom via Qatar on March 18.

With this, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 16.

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