Birgunj / Nepalgunj, May 13

Two COVID-19 patients, who were undergoing treatment in the isolation ward of Narayani Hospital in Birgunj, fled from the hospital on Wednesday.

Both patients were residents of Chhapakaiya in Birgunj Metropolitan City.

The Nepali Army has been deployed at the hospital, while police are searching for the two patients. Attempts to contact the hospital’s Medical Superintendent Madan Kumar Upadhyaya and Birgunj Chief District Officer Bishnu Kumar Karki went in vain.

Meanwhile, Banke’s Narainapur Rural Municipality has stepped up vigil following news of escape of a COVID-19 patient from a quarantine facility in a village across the border in India. “A youth from Bahaupurba in Narainapur who was in quarantine in Sirsariya in Shravasti district of India after testing positive for COVID-19 fled from the quarantine centre on Monday morning.

We’ve alerted locals as there is a possibility that he might cross over to Nepal clandestinely,” said Narainapur RM Chairperson Mohammad Istiyak Ahmad Shah.

According to Narainapur RM Ward No 3 Chairperson Raj Kumar Maurya, three youths from Bahaupurba had been quarantined in Sirsariya for the past 15 days after testing positive for coronavirus in a Lucknow-based laboratory.

Last week, three youths had to be sent back to the quarantine centre in India as they came home after secretly crossing into Nepal by escaping from a quarantine centre in the southern neighbour.