Kaski, March 3
Amid the increasing threat of the coronavirus epidemic in Nepal, Pokhara city has prepared four isolation wards with a capacity of 60 patients in total.
There are now three isolation beds in Western Regional Hospital, 27 beds in Charak Memorial Hospital, 15 in Manipal Teaching Hospital and 15 beds in Gandaki Medical College, informs Gandaki Provincial Health Director Binod Bindu Sharma.
The Gandaki provincial government will soon prepare a group of doctors to work at the isolation wards. Many doctors and pathologists are also to be given special training, adds Sharma. Earlier, the provincial government had formed a task force for prevention against COVID-19 led by Dr Sharma. The team had been working to adopt necessary preventive measures against the virus.
However, the province does not have the required number of kits to collect the swab samples of the patients that may visit the hospitals, neither does it have enough preventive kits for the doctors to work on it. As of late, there are 25 kits in the province.
The doctors also need special kinds of helmets, gloves, and masks. For these, the Ministry of Social Development has allocated a budget of Rs 500,000.
Meanwhile, Sharma also informs that they are searching for an appropriate location for quarantine purposes. The possible locations include Lekhnath municipality building and other unused but adjoined school buildings.
