Siraha, August 6

The spread of COVID-19 in the community has caused terror in Siraha of late.

Just yesterday, four persons involved in different occupations tested positive for the virus here, according to District Health Office.

Two of the four are health professionals of a polyclinic; one is a commoner of Mirchaiya Municipality and the next person is a hotelier in Golbazaar Municipality.

In the wake of the news of infections, Mirchaiya Municipality has decided to impose a lockdown in the local body from today until August 16. “With the findings of the recent infections, all businesses have been closed,” said local social activist Ashok Sah.

Meanwhile, the local levels in the district are now working on contact-tracing of infected persons with the help of the District Health Office. “We will have the result of contact-tracing by tomorrow,” said Mirchaiya Municipality Health Section Chief Umesh Singh.

It was learnt during contact-tracing that more than 100 persons from Siraha, Dhanusha, Udayapur and Saptari had availed service from the polyclinic whose two staff members tested positive for the virus yesterday.

In Golbazaar, while the hotelier has been placed in quarantine, work related to contact-tracing is under way. So far, swab samples have been collected from 4,565 persons in Siraha. While test reports of 220 of those samples came out positive, swab samples of 3,880 persons tested negative.

According to the District Health Office, reports of 117 persons are pending. So far, 191 COVID-19 infected persons have recovered and returned home in the district and 29 are undergoing treatment in isolation.

There are around 800 persons staying in quarantine in the district now.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 7, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.