JANAKPURDHAM, AUGUST 31

A health worker of Mahottari’s Balawa Municipality diagnosed with COVID-19 had succumbed to the disease on Wednesday, the health ministry revealed today.

The 37-year-old man, who had completed the health assistant course and used to run a medical store in Balawa bazaar, breathed his last on the way to Kathmandu-based Vayodha Hospital.

According to health officer and COVID-19 focal person at district health office Girendra Kumar Jha, the health worker and his wife were referred to the Kathmandu-based hospital after they complained of breathing difficulty.

They went in the same ambulance.

On the way, they began gasping for breath. But there was only one oxygen cylinder in the ambulance. He put his wife on oxygen and breathed his last in the ambulance before reaching the hospital. On reaching Kathmandu, his wife was admitted to the hospital.

Their swab samples were collected and his body was sent to Mahottari in the same ambulance.

Jha said the body was buried the same day in his home district.

Later, they tested positive for COVID-19. His wife has, however, recovered and is staying at her kin’s place in Kathmandu. Swabs of 82 people who they had come into contact with have been collected.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 1, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.