As many as 12 people infected with Covid-19 in Godaita Municipality, Sarlahi, are staying in various local quarantine facilities due to the lack of an isolation ward in the district.

The Health Ministry on Saturday morning confirmed 13 positive cases in Sarlahi—12 from Godaita and one from Kabilashi Municipality—taking the tally in the district to 33. Even after the official confirmation, the 12 infected people in Godaita are still staying in quarantine facilities, as the district does not have an isolation ward. Isolation wards in the Provincial Hospital in Janakpur and the Narayani Sub-regional Hospital and Gandak Hospital in Birgunj do not have any beds left to accommodate the increasing number of positive cases in Province 2.

“We are compelled to keep the infected people in quarantine facilities, as the coronavirus-specific hospitals in Janakpur and Birgunj refused to admit them citing lack of beds,” said Devendra Yadav, the mayor of Godaita Municipality. Thirteen people of the local unit had tested positive for the virus on Friday. According to Yadav, all the infected people are recent returnees from India.

With a surge in the number of positive cases in Sarlahi, the district administration is preparing to set up an isolation ward in Malangawa, the district headquarters, to house the infected.

“We have started work to set up an isolation ward in a nursing campus at Ward No 2 in Malangwa. We will shift the infected people there once the work is completed,” said Chief District Officer Mohan Bahadur GC. He added that the infected people might be shifted in the isolation ward by the end of this week.

Twenty-five people in Godaita Municipality have tested positive for the disease so far, and polymerase chain reaction tests of many others staying in various quarantine facilities are yet to be conducted. Yadav said. Over 130 people who recently returned from India are staying in various quarantine facilities in the municipality.

Health workers on Tuesday collected the throat swabs of 81 people in Godaita and five in Ramnagar Rural Municipality, and sent them to Kathmandu for PCR tests.

“Twenty-five people of Godaita and one from Ramnagar have tested positive for the virus while reports of other swabs are yet to come,” said GC.

The man from Kabilashi Municipality who tested positive on Saturday morning had also returned from Mumbai, India, a few days ago. He had returned home along with 40 other people.

“All the people who returned with the infected man and their families have been kept in quarantine facilities,” said Diplal Raya, ward chairman of Kabilasi Ward No.1.