By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Dec. 6: Returnees from India are to be kept mandatorily at the quarantine here in Baitadi district.

The new rule has been circulated to the Local Level in the wake of detection of omicron, the new variant of SARS-CoV-2, or the novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19.

Khagendra Bharati, information officer of the district administration office (DAO), informed that the DAO has written to the Local Levels urging them to arrange for mandatory quarantine for a week of those who return from India and monitoring it so that spread of the new variant of the novel coronavirus, omicron, is averted.

"We have also arranged for the anti-gen test of those who return from India at Jhulaghat, Nepal-India border point, and ask them to stay at home quarantine for a week," he said.

The health desk has been set up at Jhulaghat for conducting an anti-gen tests of the people returning home from India to see if they are infected with the novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Indian side has informed the Nepali side that only those who have got full doses of the anti-COVID vaccine will be allowed to enter India. Pithauragadh district office has written to the Baitadi district office to this effect mentioning that those who had no card of having received both the doses of the vaccine will not be allowed to enter India.  (Translated from RSS news in Nepali)