Jajarkot, June 8

More than 2,300 people coming from India have been kept in different quarantine facilities of Jajarkot, but swab samples of only 749 were collected and sent to Surkhet for COVID-19 test. Of this number, 448 people are still waiting for their reports.

Reports of 300 people have come in. Of them, four persons, including one police officer from Barekot Rural Municipality, tested positive for the respiratory contagion.

It has already been ten days since swab samples were sent from Chhedagad Municipality, Bheri Municipality and Shivalaya Rural Municipality to Surkhet for test. Delay in getting lab tests has made it difficult to decide how long the people will have to stay in quarantine.

Though the government had set the policy of conducting PCR test on all the people coming from India initially, the government now says it's not necessary for everyone coming from abroad to undergo the PCR test.

Swab collection was stopped after labs in Jumla and Surkhet could not cope with the soaring number of COVID cases in Karnali.

According to Jajarkot Health Service Office Chief Dr Sunil Pun, swab collection stopped after a directive from the centre to keep returnees from India in quarantine for 14 days, and send them home after conducting rapid diagnostic tests. The directive also said that PCR test would only be conducted if they tested positive in the RDT, said Dr Pun.

Dr Pun said that swab collection was halted as it would take a long time for the test results to come due to less number of PCR machines and high number of swab samples for the test.

A total of 2,617 people coming from India and other countries have been kept in 35 quarantine facilities of seven local levels in Jajarkot at present, said DSP Kishor Kumar Shrestha at the District Police Office, Jajarkot.

Bheri Municipality had sent 137 persons quarantined in Bheri Gyanodaya Campus home yesterday.

There were 300 persons in the quarantine facility set up in Bheri Gyanodaya Campus. Swab samples of 749 people have been collected so far in the district. Of them, reports of 448 have come out. Similarly, 500 have undergone rapid diagnostic test.

Four persons, including one female and one police officer, have tested positive for the virus in Jajarkot so far.

Civil Society member Rajendra Bikram Shah said the government decision to stop swab collection for PCR test had created fear among the people in the district. “The government is putting public health at risk by stopping swab collection for PCR test,” Shah added.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 9, 2020, of The Himalayan Time