Lumbini Province
Local governments in Dang are building additional isolation wards
As the Covid-specific hospital in the district has reached its full occupancy, 38 coronavirus patients have been observing isolation in common quarantine centres.Durgalal KC
Several local governments in Dang district are constructing isolation facilities in their areas as the Covid-specific hospital in Beljhundi has run out of its capacity.
With the 50-bed hospital full, 38 coronavirus patients are currently being kept in isolation at the quarantine centres set up in their respective areas.
Rapti Rural Municipality has been constructing an isolation centre at Rapti Technical School in Lalmatiya with the assistance of Nepali Army. The local government is building an isolation facility with the capacity of holding 100 patients at a time.
The isolation facility will be used to keep the patients from the Deukhuri region, which covers Rapti Rural Municipality, Lamahi Municipality, Gadhawa Rural Municipality and Rajpur Rural Municipality.
“Since many infected patients are being kept in quarantine centres due to the shortage of isolation centers, we had no option than to increase our isolation capacity. We cannot keep the infected people and those observing quarantine at the same place for a long time,” said Numananda Subedi, chairman of Rapti Rural Municipality.,
According to Dr Pushpa Bhusal, a medical officer at Rapti Rural Municipality, said the isolation facility at Lalmatiya will be run by the medical teams from all four local units that fall in the Deukhuri region.
“The health workers will work in shifts,” Bhusal said. “Only critical patients will be sent to the hospital in Beljhundi.”
Likewise, Ghorahi Sub-metroplitan City has recently completed a 50-bed isolation facility in Ward No. 10.
“Currently, we have a set-up that could keep 50 individuals. But we can expand the capacity of the facility up to 200 beds,” said Narulal Chaudhary, the city’s mayor.
In Tulsipur Sub-metropolitan city, the local government has been building two isolation centres with the capacity of holding 50 patients.
“We are converting the meeting hall of the Tulsipur Chamber of Commerce and Industries and the hostel building of Care Nursing Campus into isolation wards”, said Narulal Chaudhary, the mayor of Tulsipur.
Bangalachuli Rural Municipality is also constructing a 50-bed isolation ward at Syuja Primary Health Centre.
“We are currently isolating the coronavirus infected individuals in vacant buildings that were constructed under the People's Housing Programme. They will be moved to the isolation ward once the set-up has been completed,” said Bhakta Bahadur Oli, chairman of the rural municipality.
Earlier, 16 health facilities in Dang had set up isolation wards with the combined capacity of accommodating 166 patients, including the 100-bed setup at Covid-specific hospital in Beljhundi.
Chief District Officer Govinda Prasad Rijal said additional isolation wards were being built in various parts of the district because the facilities that were built earlier were either full or unwilling to admit patients.
“Setting up new isolation wards was the only solution to address the issue,” he said.
Although Beljhundi hospital has 100 beds, only 50 of them have been set aside to isolate coronavirus patients.
“We are keeping 50 beds for those people whose test results have come negative in the second test. Patients have to undergo swab tests twice before they are cleared, so we have to separate the isolation beds for those who are infected and those who are in the recovery phase,” said Dr Sarbesh Sharma, a member secretary of the hospital.
Meanwhile, Rapti Academy of Health Science in Ghorahi has refused to admit coronavirus infected people even though the Covid-specific hospital in Beljhundi has run out of beds.
“The academy will admit Covid-19 patients in case the beds at Beljhundi hospital are full,” said Dr Sangita Bhandari, vice chancellor of the academy.
She claimed that the reports about patients occupying all 100 beds in the Covid-specific hospital were untrue.
“There are still vacant beds in the hospital. The reports about the hospital reaching its full occupancy are rumors,” she added.
As of Sunday, 76 individuals have tested positive for coronavirus in Dang.