Forty-five-year-old Bam Bahadur Thapa had gone to India to treat his jaundice but had to return to Nepal recently without receiving any treatment. As is the norm for all returnees, he was placed at a quarantine facility in his home district of Dailekh. However, Thapa’s health condition is getting worse during his stay at the facility.

“I have received no medical help despite repeated pleas with authorities at the quarantine centre,” he told the Post. “What do I do now?”

Many others like Thapa at the Janata Secondary School quarantine in Dailekh, which houses 80 individuals, are suffering from various diseases. But the quarantine administration has paid no attention, Thapa said.

Four people are suffering from diarrhoea, which is one of the less common symptoms of Covid-19. Three people had mild strokes recently but their swab samples have not been collected, let alone tested.

“The rooms are crowded; there are over 20 people crammed in my room,” Thapa said. “Some people drink alcohol and the smell gets everywhere.”

Many of those quarantined have wanted to flee the facility, Jagat Thapa, one of the quarantined individuals, said. But the people’s representatives have warned them against it. “The representatives have told us there would be consequences if we let the information of the facility’s dire situation out,” he said. “Mayor and deputy mayor often visit us but they have paid no attention to the situation we are living in.”

More worryingly, most people haven’t been tested in over ten days since they were put in quarantine, Thapa added. There are no health workers deployed at the facility. Savitri Malla, deputy mayor of Narayan Municipality, said the local unit has not been able to conduct Covid-19 tests on the quarantined, as it lacks testing kits.

“We are planning to send health workers to attend to the sick,” Malla said.

Things are worse in nearby Bhairabi Rural Municipality, where as many as 24 individuals have been kept in a single room, and people haven’t been tested in 11 days since they were quarantined.

“We were told we’d be released after 14 days but our swabs have yet to be collected, let alone tested,” Santosh Shahi said. “If we have to stay like this for a few more days, we’d get sick of coronavirus or some other diseases.”

As Karnali Province reported over 250 cases within just two weeks since the virus was first detected, the provincial government has been struggling to manage resources and isolation facilities to house the infected. Dozens of infected are still at quarantine facilities for a lack of isolation centres.

In Salyan, for instance, 17 people who have tested positive for the disease are yet to be moved from two quarantine centres in the district. The two facilities house 440 individuals, all of whom are returnees from India.

Mohan Khadka, chief administrative officer in Bangadkupinde Municipality, said the infected have been transferred to a different room within the quarantine facility to avoid the spread of the virus.

“A 100-bed isolation ward at the district hospital is still under construction. Until the ward’s completion, the infected will be placed in quarantine facilities with extra scrutiny,” he said.

As of Wednesday, Karnali Province has reported 269 cases, of which 56 are from Salyan.