Health officials in Mugu have raised concerns about the high rate of coronavirus infection in Mugamkarmarong Rural Municipality.

The local body has dispatched health teams to several villages to run antigen tests on the local population after many villagers came down with fever and cold.

“Almost 90 percent of patients with fever and cold tested positive for Covid-19 in some villages of Mugamkarmarong. The infection rate is declining in other local units but is soaring in Mugamkarmarong,” said Baliraj Budha, the health unit chief of the local body.

According to the District Health Office, the other local bodies in the district, including Soru, Khatyad and Chhayanathrara, have reported a decline in the number of coronavirus cases in the past week.

“But in the villages of Mugamkarmarong, as many as four to five members of a family are infected with the virus,” said Budha.

As many as 156 people have been infected with the coronavirus in Mugamkarmarong during the second wave of Covid-19. The infection is spreading to Magri, Maha, Pulu, Chimat, Papu, Rius, Serok, Kimri, Daura, Takha and Chitai, among high altitude settlements in the rural municipality.

According to the office of Mugamkarmarong Rural Municipality, several health teams have been deployed to the affected areas for testing and providing treatment.

“But we can not intensify testing of the suspects due to a lack of antigen testing kits,” said Budha.

According to Tirtharaj Shahi, the information officer of Mugamkarmarong Rural Municipality, four coronavirus patients have died in Mugamkarmarong in the past few weeks. The health officials suspect that the virus might have spread in the community from villagers who attended the funeral rites of Covid-19 patients without following health security protocols.

“The infection is spreading rapidly in the villages, as people gather publicly without following health protocols. We have deployed health officials and other employees to keep the villagers under surveillance,” said Shahi. “We have asked Covid-19 patients to stay in home isolation and follow health protocols. The health workers have also been providing necessary help to the patients.”

Mugamkarmarong Rural Municipality does not have an isolation facility. Covid-19 patients in the local unit are deprived of proper treatment due to a shortage of health workers and medicines.

The health institutions at Rius, Magri and Pulu of the rural municipality are facing an acute shortage of essential medicines.

Meanwhile, the onset of monsoon has disrupted various rural roads in the district. Vehicular movement along the Gamgadhi-Chhail road, which connects Mugamkarmarong to the district headquarters, has been disrupted as landslides blocked the road in 12 different places.

“Landslides have blocked the road at Bhattadandi, Salimkhola, Nakebhir, Sunath, Kamphakhola and Chhail, among other places. We cannot take any patients to the district hospital in case of a health emergency,” said Chhiring Kyapne Lama, the chairman of Mugamkarmarong Rural Municipality.

According to Lama, it will take at least a month to clear the landslide debris and resume vehicular movement along the road.

“We have run out of medicines. The disruption of the road network has worried us even more,” Lama added.

The local unit does not have a single doctor.

According to Budha, auxiliary health workers and auxiliary nursing midwives have been mobilised to provide treatment to coronavirus patients in Mugamkarmarong.

“We have requested the Karnali Academy of Health Sciences in Jumla to dispatch a health team to the local body to contain the surge in Covid-19 cases,” said Budha.