Friday marked the eleventh day of quarantine for Keshav Bohara. The resident of Sunarya Rural Municipality, Baitadi, was put in a quarantine facility at Bhumiraj Basic School soon after he returned home from India, where he had gone to work. 

The past eleven days have been pretty rough, Bohara says.

“The food is okay, but the cold at night is unbearable. We don’t have proper beddings to keep us warm in the dank school hall.”

The officials monitoring the facility initially promised to provide clothes but that has not happened yet.

Like Bohara, other occupants of the quarantine facility the Post talked to complained about the same issues. Most of them are returnees from India. They had returned home in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Himal Bohara, another inmate in the quarantine facility, said that there were only 12 beddings for 27 people staying in the facility.

“We may or may not have caught coronavirus but we will definitely catch a cold once we move out,” said Himal, who has been staying at the facility for 19 days, even if the rule states 14 would have been enough. “The officials say the doctors would come soon and we’d be released but they haven’t come yet,” he said, adding that if they don’t come for two more days, he would go home and stay in self-quarantine.

Ram Singh Mahara, chief of the Health Department at the rural municipality, said that the quarantined individuals haven’t been tested yet.

“We admit there has been a delay in testing them,” he said. “But since rapid testing kits haven’t arrived in the district, we are compelled to hold them for so long.”

He added that the kits would arrive on Friday and by Saturday the quarantine facilities would release those who test negative.

Bir Bahadur Bista, chief of the Sunarya Rural Municipality, said his office hasn’t received complaints regarding the quarantine facility. “We have tried our best to provide the quarantined individuals with all necessary services and facilities that we can afford,” he said.

A total of 105 quarantine facilities with the capacity of holding 1,026 people have been set up in ten local units of Baitadi.

According to Bista, 513 individuals are currently staying in various quarantine facilities.