Banke, May 19 : The local administration has sealed off the Narainapur rural municipality for an indefinite period after coronavirus infection was found in 59 persons on a single day.    
A meeting of the District Security Committee on Monday declared Narainapur as a high risk zone and decided to totally seal off the area until further notice, assistant chief district officer Dirgha Raj Upadhyay said.    
Narainapur, which lies beyond the Rapti river about 35 kilometres towards south east from Nepalgunj city, adjoins India. It is divided into six wards. Rapti Sonari rural municipality lies to its north east.    
The assistant chief district officer said movement of people and vehicles to and from Narainapur has been completely prohibited except for emergency to contain the spread of coronavirus. According to him, a large number of security personnel has been mobilised in the area.    
COVID-19 infection has been found in 68 people in the rural municipality, including the 59 cases identified at Narainapur on Monday. Before this, the infection was found in nine persons and among them one died last week.    
Banke District Health Office's corona focal person Naresh Shrestha said the throat and nasal swabs were collected from 263 people who had come into contact with the nine persons identified before this. Among these people, 59 persons tested positive to the coronavirus on Monday while the test results of 110 persons is still awaited.    
With this, the total number of novel coronavirus infected cases in the district has reached to 93 as of Monday.