Panchthar, April 12

Health workers deployed to the local levels of Panchthar district have started conducting COVID-19 sample tests from today.

Health workers with 200 kits started testing COVID-19 suspects in Phalgunanda Rural Municipality.

Province lawmaker Sita Thebe said health workers would carry out the tests in eight local levels. She said health workers would take samples of suspects staying in quarantine and returnees from abroad at the local levels.

Thebe informed that around 200 sample tests would be carried out.

Health workers reached Phidim yesterday and started taking samples of suspects in Phidim Municipality and Phalgunanda Rural Municipality this morning.

Chief at Panchthar Health Office Narayan Subedi said test reports of 15 people were negative. He said a team of technicians would complete the sample tests of suspects within two days.

District Coordination Committee Chief Bishnu Prasad Sapkota said the technicians’ team would take samples of people in quarantine in the first phase and foreign returnees in the second phase. He added that preparation was under way to dispatch swab samples to BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences for laboratory test if required.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 13, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.