• Fifteen of them from Nepalgunj
• Seven-year-old contracts virus
• Biggest single-day spike

Kathmandu, May 3

Sixteen people tested positive for coronavirus infection today, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases detected so far in the country to 75.

This is the biggest single-day spike in the number of cases confirmed with coronavirus in Nepal. Earlier on April 17, 14 people tested positive — 12 from Udayapur and two from Chitwan district. On April 21, 11 cases were confirmed in Udayapur.

“Fifteen people — eight males and seven females — are from Nepalgunj. A seven-year-old is among those who tested positive today,” said Bikash Devkota, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, during a media briefing. Throat and nasal swabs of 15 people tested positive in Bheri hospital, Nepalgunj.

A 36-year-old man from Parsa also tested positive for COVId-19 today after his swab was tested in the National Public Health Laboratory, Kathmandu.

“The person had come for screening as there were coronavirus cases in Chhapkaiya, Birgunj metropolitan City,” said Madan Kumar Upadhyaya, medical superintendent at Narayani hospital, Birgunj. according to the health ministry, 12 people were infected with coronavirus in Birgunj of which four have already been discharged.

“Samples of all those testing positive today in Nepalgunj were collected after tracing contacts of a 60-year-old man from Nepalgunj, who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus on May 1 and is under treatment in Sushil Koirala Prakhar Cancer Hospital, Nepalgunj. They are his family members or relatives. All of them are asymptomatic,” said Nepalgunj mayor Dhawal Shamsher Rana.

“The throat and nasal swabs of 90 persons in close contact with the person who had tested positive earlier were collected for laboratory tests. Of the 90 samples, 30 were tested today. Remaining samples are being tested,” said Prakash Bahadur Thapa, medical superintendent, Bheri hospital.

Samples were collected from people residing in Mahendra Park, DSP Road and Eklaini areas in Nepalgunj.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 4, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.