National
Baglung intensified rapid testing; health of both the infected ‘normal’
According to the District Crisis Management Committee, the district should conduct at least 1,000 tests to ensure that there hasn’t been local transmission of the disease.Prakash Baral
Baglung’s District Health Office has identified over 900 individuals that require coronavirus testing, and plans to complete their rapid testing by Tuesday, Suraj Giri, chief of the office, said.
The district had gotten a lot of attention when two individuals tested positive to Covid-19 in the first week of April. The district administration has said it has intensified contact tracing and testing since then.
According to the District Crisis Management Committee, the district should conduct at least 1,000 tests to ensure that there hasn’t been local transmission of the disease. The committee has identified individuals susceptible to the virus in all of the district’s local units, including 192 individuals in Baglung Municipality and 161 in Badigadh Rural Municipality.
The majority of identified individuals are those who recently returned from India and overseas. Those who have been quarantined for over 14 days and haven’t shown any symptoms of the novel coronavirus will not have to undergo the testing, according to the committee.
The district currently has 1,000 rapid diagnostic testing kits. On Friday, 94 samples were tested, all of which registered negative. The district will be conducting 200 tests per day Saturday onwards, Giri said.
The two infected individuals in the district—two women aged 19 and 65, both of whom returned from Belgium—are currently undergoing treatment at Dhaulagiri Zonal Hospital in Baglung.
According to Dr Shailendra Pokharel, medical superintendent at the hospital, health status of both the infected is normal.
“The fever in both patients has subsided and they haven’t shown any acute symptoms,” Pokharel said. All the family members of the infected, however, have tested negative.