Kathmandu, March 1
The government is preparing to send 175 Nepali nationals, evacuated from coronavirus-hit Wuhan of China and currently quarantined in Kharipati of Bhaktapur, if their second test results come negative.
Health personnel have collected swab samples for the test, on Saturday. All of them had tested negative for the infection in their first test, on the day they were quarantined, in the third week of February. Hence, the government hopes that the results would not change this time also.
But, if anyone of them tests positive for the virus, all of them will have to stay in quarantine, informs Bikas Devkota, the spokesperson at the Ministry of Health. “The infected person will be taken to a hospital, but the rest will also have to repeat the 14-day quarantine if one tests positive,” he says.
However, there is no need to panic as no one has suffered any ailment in the past two weeks, he claims. “It means they are highly likely to leave for home tomorrow,” Devkota says.
Meanwhile, 18 other people who were part of the evacuation and quarantine process are also waiting for the test results. Officials of the ministry and National Public Health Laboratory had gone to Kharipati yesterday to collect the samples.
