DHARAN, AUGUST 8

On Thursday, five members of the same family tested positive for the COVID-19 in Dharan-3.

They had to remain in home isolation for 24 hours before they were finally put in hospital isolation of the BP Koirala Institute of Health and Sciences. On Friday, COVID-19 was confirmed in a 10-year-old boy of Dharan-15. The next day, his mother and grandmother and two others were also confirmed with the virus, but they have yet to be put in hospital isolation. Amidst the shortage of isolation beds in BPKIHS, they are bound to stay at home.

As the virus seems to be spreading in the community now, management of the infected cases has been difficult.

Managing COVID-19 patients of Sunsari has been difficult as the COVID-19 patients from provinces 1 and 2 are referred to the hospital.

The hospital has a 70-bed ward to keep COVID-19 asymptomatic patients, but the ward is already accommodating 17 more patients than its capacity. Similarly, the hospital has turned its paying ward into an isolation ward for symptomatic COVID-19 cases.

Lately, as many as 46 COVID-19 cases have been found in Dharan alone. Of them, 25 are seen to be the cases of the community spread of the virus. Now, the sub-metropolis is testing swab samples collected from people, who might have come in contact with the positive cases. Of the 800 swab samples tested since Tuesday, test reports of 130 samples have come out, of which six samples have tested positive for the virus.

According to Dharan Sub-metropolis Health Division Chief Umesh Meheta, an increasing number of COVID-19 patients in Dharan is posing a challenge to manage the cases in the BPKIHS. “We are holding discussions with the doctors at the hospital regarding the shortage of beds for increasing patients. There are suggestions that the asymptomatic patients could be sent home to stay in home quarantine.

The municipality has been working on how the asymptomatic cases could be managed,” Meheta said.

BPKIHS spokesperson Dr Nidesh Sapkota ruled out problems regarding the management of COVID-19 patients.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 9, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.