Itahari, March 19

The Eastern Divisional Headquarters of the Nepali Army has established 420-bed quarantine centres in Province 1. The centres have been set up to prepare for a potential COVID-19 outbreak in the province.

Three separate venues of Jhapa, Morang and Udayapur have been selected for quarantine in the province. According to Itahari-based provincial army headquarters source, a 200-bed quarantine each has been set up in Tandi of Morang district and Belsoth, Katari of Udayapur district. Likewise, a 40-bed quarantine has been set up at the agricultural training centre of Bhadrapur, Jhapa.

‘’We have established 440-bed quarantine supporting the decision made by Province 1 government,’’ said an army official who asked not to be named, adding, “If needed, we can increase the 40 bed capacity of Bhadrapur to 200 beds.’’It may be noted that Province 1 government had decided to set up quarantine at Tandi of Morang and Srilanka Tappu of Udayapur in its last Cabinet meeting of 12 March.

Hikmat Karki, minister of internal affairs and law, said the province government was working as best as it could to prevent COVID-19. “We have initiated works from public awareness to building quarantine centre for potential outbreak of this deadly virus,” said Karki, also the spokesperson of the provincial government.

General Commanding Officer of Eastern Divisional Headquarters Major General Ananta Karki urged all to work together to prevent COVID-19 infection.

Bordering both the pandemic-hit countries of China and India, Province 1 has not recorded any COVID-19 victim so far.