Pokhara, March 10

Seventy-one Chinese workers employed in the construction of Pokhara Regional International Airport have been placed in quarantine.

The Chinese workers who had returned to Nepal between March 4 and 6 from Chengdu and Beijing after celebrating the Chinese New Year have been kept in isolation at the project site itself.

“They returned after remaining in quarantine for 14 days. Since neither we nor the workers wanted to take any chances, we decided to place them in quarantine again,” said the airport project chief Binesh Munkarmi, adding the workers’ temperature is being checked thrice a day.

“We’ve informed the Province Health Directorate about the quarantine of Chinese workers. So far everyone’s health is normal,” said Munkarmi.

Prior to this, 36 Chinese workers of the airport project were also quarantined upon their return from China.

Munkarmi added that a total of 190 Chinese workers, including the 36 who underwent quarantine, had been deployed for work.

Gandaki Province Health Directorate Director Binod Bindu Sharma said his office was keeping itself posted about the condition of the Chinese workers engaged at the airport construction site. “We’d visited the project site on Sunday morning. Although all Chinese workers who return from China come with health certificate, we take no chances and put them under quarantine again,” he said.

Sharma added that his office was also monitoring the health of Chinese workers employed at other projects, such as Nawalpur’s Hongshi Cement Factory, Narayangadh-Butwal road section and Nyadi Hydropower Project. “All workers are in good health,” he said.

According to the directorate, 109 Chinese nationals are employed at Hongshi Cement Factory, 38 at Nyadi Hydropower Project in Lamjung and 26 at Butwal-Narayangadh road construction project.