A Nepal Army man deputed at the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre Secretariat has tested positive for the coronavirus.

According to Mahendra Prasad Guragain, coordinator at the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC) Secretariat, the Army man is believed to have contracted the virus when he was out for a haircut.

The Secretariat is situated on the premises of the Nepal Army’s Chhauni barracks.

Other employees at the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre have been tested for the virus and their results are awaited, said Guragain. The Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre Secretariat has not been sealed though.

The last meeting of the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre was held on Sunday.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Ishwar Pokhrel, who is the coordinator of the Centre, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and Health Minister Bhanubhaka Dhakal were present in the meeting. Chief of Army Staff Purna Chandra Thapa was also present and he is also in home quarantine, according to Army sources.

All three ministers are in home quarantine, according to Dipendra Shrestha, personal aide to Pokhrel.

“We came to know about the virus infection in one of the staff at the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre Secretariat today,” Shrestha told the Post. “The three ministers who attended the meeting are now in home quarantine.”

Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur of Kathmandu Valley as well as more than 35 districts across the country are under prohibitory orders to contain the spread of the virus, which has until Friday infected 36,456 people.

As many as 927 new cases were reported on Friday. With 12 more deaths, the most for a single day, the virus death tally has reached 195. The Health MInistry said on Friday that 415 new Covid-19 infections were reported in Kathmandu Valley.

The ruling Nepal Communist Party on Friday decided to postpone its Secretariat meeting scheduled for Saturday until September 3 after two of the members went into home quarantine.

“The decision to postpone the meeting was taken after a meeting between the party chairs KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Friday,” said Bishnu Sapkota, press coordinator of Dahal.

Saturday’s Secretariat meeting was supposed to discuss a report submitted by the six-member task force.

The task force, formed by chairs Oli and Dahal to resolve the internal conflict in the party, had submitted its report on August 22.

In its report, the task force has said Oli will lead the government for the full term and Dahal will run the party with an “expanded role”. It has also made recommendations on the party’s general convention.

Tika R Pradhan contributed reporting.

This article has been updated to replace the term 'isolation' with 'home quarantine' in the headline as well as the body.