By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Apr. 9: The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has said that it has widened lab test facility for the diagnosis of COVID- 19.
Speaking at the regular media briefing on Wednesday, spokesperson at MoHP Dr Bikash Devkota said that 2,367 specimens of coronavirus suspects had been tested as of Wednesday.
Among these, 1,965 samples were tested at the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) in Kathmandu and 401 samples were tested in various labs outside the valley.
Dr Devkota informed that the test of 80 samples was carried out today.
According to Dr Devkota, the entire test carried out for the past four days have come negative for COVID-19. Likewise, 198 samples were tested in Kailali and Kanchanpur through Rapid Diagnostic Test.
Dr Devkota said that the specimen collection of coronavirus suspected from Dipayal is going on. “We are collecting 300 samples from Dipayal,” said Dr Devkota.
He said that 802 samples were collected from Achham, Jumla and Surkhet districts and those samples will be tested at NPHL.
The sample test is being carried out at ten places of all the seven states. As per the details entered in mobile application and website of MoHP, 175 returnees were in the red zone meaning they could be COVID-19 suspects. The tracing of all those suspects is going on, said Dr Devkota.
He said 134 people were undergoing treatment in isolation wards in various hospitals, of which 12 were undergoing treatment in Kathmandu.
Dr Devkota informed that 8,580 foreign returnees were in quarantine across the country as of Wednesday. The district level COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre has been set up in all the districts for combating the crisis triggered by coronavirus infection, said Dr Devkota.