Rautahat, August 11

COVID-19 infection has been spreading at the community level in Rautahat.

As many as 11 persons, including a youth leader, a petrol pump owner and an assistant health worker of Pothiyahi health post, have tested positive for the virus in Garuda Municipality today.

It is necessary to carry out the contact tracing of those who have come in contact with the infected. Garuda Municipality Health Coordinator Janardhan Jha said swab samples of 79 persons were collected on August 6 and 11 persons tested positive for the virus. The test results came today.

Garuda Municipality Mayor Siya Ram Kushwaha said that nine persons, including Katahariya Municipality deputy mayor, his wife and nine others, were confirmed to have been infected with the virus yesterday. He said that swab samples of 197 people were collected.

Similarly, as many as 19 persons’ reports were positive for the virus out of 114 swab samples collected in Rajdevi Municipality.

Mayor Dhirendra Singh said that as many as 13 persons tested positive in Basatpur and six in Laxmipur Belbichhawa. He said that a youth, who had come from Kathmandu to offer prayers and had distributed prasad among the villagers had also tested positive.

Locals at Basatpur are terrified after the youth tested positive for COVID-19 at District Hospital, Gaur, before heading to Kathmandu. The infected have been sent to the isolation ward. But the infected have are facing problems receiving treatment due to lack of beds in the isolation ward.

According to health workers, they could not provide the treatment facility to patients as the provincial government had closed the isolation wards operated at Police School Birta, Jayakisan Secondary School and Gaurishankar Yadav Campus.

They added that it was very difficult to provide the service due to lack of place.

Mayor Singh urged those who had come in contact with the infected youth, to get tested and stay at home as the infection was on the rise in Rajdevi.

Social worker Shambhu Suprim said locals were scared as the virus had spread at the community level. He said that the local level, provincial government and the federal government had to take initiative to increase PCR tests and save citizens’ lives.

Suprim added that the situation would turn worse if the authority concerned did not take the matter seriously.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 12, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.