Surkhet, June 10

A 50-year-old man was rushed to Province Hospital in Birendranagar after he was bitten by a snake while staying in quarantine at Barahatal Rural Municipality, Surkhet, yesterday.

No one had informed the hospital authority that the man was staying in a quarantine facility.

After he tested positive for COV- ID-19 while undergoing treatment at the emergency ward, hospital staffers panicked.

The hospital authority came to know last evening that the man receiving treatment in the emergency ward had been staying in a quarantine facility. Four doctors had attended to him.

He tested positive for the virus in the PCR test yesterday.

Province hospital Director Dr Dammar Khadka said the emergency ward had to be closed due to the local level’s irresponsible behaviour.

The man’s RDT report was also positive. “If we were informed that he was a quarantined patient, we would have attended to him donning PPE.

Now we have been forced to shut down the emergency ward,” said Khadka.

The swab samples of ambulance driver, doctors and some staffers have been collected and sent for COVID-19 test. They will now be quarantined.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 11, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.