Quarantine facilities in Tanahun ill-managed

Damauli, May 27

Quarantine facilities set up in Tanahun lack basic facilities required to meet the government’s criteria.

Quarantine facilities were set up in the district to keep Nepali migrant workers returning from India, but due to poor management of these facilities, there is increasing risk of coronavirus spread.

Hundreds of migrant workers were stranded on the Indian side of the border for many days. Many returnees were brought to the district but they could not be managed well due to lack of coordination between the local level and the administration.

Similarly, the locals have protested the administration’s decision to set up quarantine facilities in schools.

They fear that since these facilities are ill managed, quarantined people might spread virus in the community if they are infected.

Byas Municipality Mayor Baikuntha Neupane said the problems occurred due to lack of coordination. He said that it was very difficult to keep people in quarantine facilities as the local administration was clueless about the number of people returning from India. He informed that migrant workers rescued from the border had been kept in the quarantine facilities established in Bhanubhakta Campus, but it could not accommodate all the returnees.

He added that preparations were under way to establish more quarantine facilities as the number of people returning from India might increase.

Bhanu Municipality Mayor Udaya Raj Gauli said that as many as 14 India returnees were kept in Sarada College quarantine.

Chief District Officer Badrinath Adhikari said they were facing a hard time managing quarantine facilities due to the large number of returnees from India. He said more than 600 people were stranded on the border.

Adhikari informed that quarantine facilities established in the schools could not accommodate all of them. He said that makeshift tents would be set up on the river banks for keeping people in quarantine.

He informed that 244 suspects had tested positive for antibodies in the rapid diagnostic test and had been kept in quarantine facilities in 10 local levels of the district.

Tanahun Health Office Chief Shankar Babu Adhikari said people stranded on the border would be rescued soon.

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A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 28, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.

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