Nepalgunj, June 22

Banke’s Narainapur, which had emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot with one death and 118 infections in the initial phase, has been able to contain the viral infection.

The rural municipality had witnessed a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases with many Nepali migrant workers returning home from India in April/May following the COVID-19 outbreak. As the municipality couldn’t manage the huge influx of people, the same had led to a real problem. But thus far, all the infected persons have recovered and returned home.

Banke Chief District Officer Ram Bahadur Kurungbang attributed the success in bringing down the cases to zero in Narainapur to the high morale and support of all stakeholders.

As the place witnessed a huge surge in infection cases, the administration took effective action, from declaring the place a prohibitory zone to using army personnel.

Similarly, work related to contact tracing and treatment of infected persons were conducted on a war footing.

As per data with the Social Development Ministry of the province, so far, 195 of the 342 COVID-19 infected persons have recovered and returned home in Banke district.

At the province level, 933 of the 2,400-plus infected persons have recovered and returned home. While 10 persons lost their lives due to the infection, many virus-infected persons undergoing treatment in isolation are also awaiting discharge following a final test.

“We have a 400-km open border with India in Province 5, but despite risk from the open border and high infection rate in the initial phase, what we’ve done to control and contain the infection here has turned out to be effective,” said Social Development Minister Sudarshan Baral, adding that some 145 new cases were detected yesterday.

The province has four COVID-19 specialised hospitals, 99 isolation centres and 1,816 quarantine shelters. Now, there are 23,040 people staying in quarantine and 1,350 persons undergoing treatment in isolation across the province.