POKHARA, JULY 17

A separate 40-bed isolation ward has come into operation in the only dedicated COVID-19 hospital in Gandaki Province from yesterday.

A building of the Western Regional Hospital has been now turned into the isolation ward, wherein a 12-bed ICU ward has also been set up.

Besides quality beds, modern technology, including speakers, have been installed to facilitate communication between the doctors and the patient in the isolation ward.

“Earlier, we had a 10-bed isolation ward. That has now been turned into a pre-isolation ward with the larger 40- bed isolation ward coming into operation,” said Pokhara Institute of Health and Sciences Vice-chancellor Dr Buddhi Bahadur Thapa.

“Though we are operating a dedicated COVID-19 hospital, we’re also catering to our regular patients,” he said.

Of the COVID-19 infected persons admitted to the isolation ward of the hospital, 86 have recovered and returned home. While two of them died, two others were transferred to their home districts in Syangja and Baglung.

“There are now five persons undergoing treatment in the isolation ward of the hospital and they all are in normal condition,” said Thapa. The hospital had also run a fever clinic in the past as a measure to control COVID-19 infection. Some 1,735 persons received services from the clinic.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 18, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.