Entire State-2 comes in grip of COVID-19, people's movement further restricted

Kathmandu - All eight districts in State-2 have been affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) with the detection of a case in Siraha Saturday morning. Siraha reported the first coronavirus case this morning, said State-2 Health Directorate. Test reports of four samples including one from Siraha were positive. The test was conducted at the Teku-based National Public Health Laboratory, Kathmandu, said Directorate's senior public health administrator Bijay Kumar Jha.

According to the latest COVID-19 testing reports, the number of COVID-19 in the State has reached 108. Parsa has the highest infections (91) followed by four in Dhanusha, three each in Rautahat, Bara and Sarlahi, two in Mahottari and one each in Saptari and Siraha. As the infections continue to spike in the State, people's movement from one settlement to another has been tightened. Unnecessary movements have been restricted, acting upon the directions from the State Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law. The need of increasing the number of isolation beds has been highly felt with the growing rate of infections.

Currently, the Birgunj-based Narayani Hospital has 50 beds, followed by 42 in the State Hospital and eight beds in Pokhariya, Birgunj. The open border between Nepal and India has posed a further health threat to the people as people continue to cross the border to enter the country. Experts underlined the need of making a holding point along the border area and begin the quarantine process. Meanwhile, the decision to convert the Lahan-based Ramkumar Umaprasad Memorial Hospital into a corona special hospital has been protested by locals.

The Lahan folks protested the State government decision by organising a press conference in the hospital premises today. As they cited, the entire Lahan would be at risk of infection if the decision was implemented, said local and Janata Samajbadi party's youth leader Lalit Narayan Mahato. There lies a dense settlement around the hospital area, it is said. Local and woman ward member Nagina Paswan said poor and indigent people will be deprived of regular treatment if the hospital was made the corona hospital. Earlier, the State government had decided to develop the hospital as a 50-bed corona facility.