Seventy-one Chinese workers at the under-construction Pokhara Regional/International Airport, who returned to Nepal between March 4-6 after celebrating the Chinese New Year, are currently kept in a quarantine facility at the project site.

The project officials and the Gandaki Provincial Health Directorate decided to quarantine the Chinese workers after some Nepali workers expressed concerns about the outbreak of Covid-19. The foreigners had, however, returned to Nepal with the Chinese authorities’ certificates that they were free from the new coronavirus called Covid-19.

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The airport administration said the Chinese workers were also willing to stay in the quarantine facility for the next 10 days, as directed by the health officials.

“Chinese and Nepali employees working at the airport do not have any health problems. Workers returning from China will be kept in quarantine for a few more days,” said Binesh Munkarmi, chief of the airport construction project.

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According to the project administration, the Chinese nationals currently in quarantine have returned from various places in China but none from Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.

“The situation is normal here. These are just precautionary measures and to keep the fear of the disease among the Nepali workers at bay,” said Munkarmi.

The China CAMC Engineering has been constructing the airport after it won the contract in May 2014. The government signed a $215.96 million soft loan agreement with China EXIM Bank in March 2016 to finance the construction. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli laid the foundation stone for the airport on April 13, 2016.

Binod Bindu Sharma, director of the Gandaki Provincial Health Directorate, said the Chinese workers under surveillance have not shown any health problems so far.