Private hotels in Pokhara to be turned into pay-isolation

Kathmandu - Jamunabarsha Sharma The Pokhara Metropolitan City in Kaski district is preparing to use private hotels here as a pay-isolation facility with the rise in the COVID-19 cases lately which could lead to a shortage of isolation and quarantine facilities. Metropolis mayor Man Bahadur GC shared that those infected ones without showing symptoms and not in a condition to get admitted to the hospital could opt to stay in such pay-isolation.

The local authority was holding talks with the concerned hoteliers for the same, informed mayor GC. Currently, the agriculture training centre in Pokhara has been converted into a 40-room isolation facility and the Metropolis has been running pay-quarantine for the suspected ones. A total of 24 hotels have been turned into pay-quarantine facility as of now. In the to-be-built pay-isolation facility, one ought to pay Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 per day depending on the services the hotels provide as well as the standards of the hotels.

The Metropolis has also arranged quarantine facility for those with bleak financial background and those not having favorable environment to be quarantined in their respective houses. Among the 39,921 swab samples collected from various labs in Gandaki State, 1,889 were found to have contracted the flu-like infection, informed Gandaki State Health Directorate.

There are currently 830 quarantine facilities while the number of isolation facilities stands at 261 in the Gandaki State. A total of 19,315 Nepalis have returned Gandaki State from India and other third countries since March 24 lockdown that was enforced across the country from March 24 to contain the spread of the deadly infection.