Dadeldhura, June 7

Five COVID-19 persons were sent to the isolation ward at Api Hospital in Dadeldhura today.

The infected had returned from India eight days ago and were staying in the quarantine facilities set up in different schools of Ganyapdhura Rural Municipality even though they had tested positive.

The infected have now been kept in the isolation ward of Api Hospital under the direct supervision of a health worker.

The hospital was closed two years ago. It is now being used to isolate COVID patients.

Lawmaker of Sudurpaschim Province Karna Bahadur Malla said the five infected persons were kept in the isolation ward with the initiative of Dadeldhura Nepali Congress after the local government, health facility and authority concerned did not bother to isolate them. He said that the infected were in the quarantine facility for three days even though their test result came out positive.

Malla further informed that no one took the initiative to isolate the infected. “The closed hospital was used in the transitional period to prevent the possible transmission of coronavirus from the infected persons,” he added.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 8, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.