By Siraj Khan

Nepalgunj, May 8: Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan City has been completely sealed off by clamping a curfew for three days, following confirmation of 23 COVID-19 cases in the city.
Only the ambulances and vehicles carrying health and security workers can be seen plying on the road.
Fear of people to be infected by the virus has left the city in utter silence.
The essential vegetable supplies coming from India have also been stopped and the local vegetable markets have been shut down until further notice. The Banke District Administration Office has informed that only limited persons were provided with vehicle permit for medicine and essential services.
Right after the curfew was imposed, the District Health Office has increased the pace of contact tracing and COVID-19 tests.
Naresh Man Shrestha, focal person of the DHO, said, “We have been rapidly conducting COVID-19 tests by identifying people in the neighbourhood of COVID-19 patients.”
According to Shrestha, swab samples were collected by identifying 300 persons who had come in contact with the first COVID-19 patient in the last three days.
All 54 samples collected on the first day tested negative for COVID-19 while the report of other swab samples collected on the second and third day is due, he added.
Meanwhile, the poor and daily wage earners in the city had complained that the curfew had made it difficult for them to ensure hand-to-mouth existence.
Rahish Kabadiya of Nepalgunj-11 said, “During the lockdown, we were earning some pennies by selling vegetables for couple of hours.”
Following the curfew enforcement, it has been difficult for us to manage even two meals a day, he added. Stating that they would not violate or protest the curfew, Kabadiya requested the government to manage meals for the daily wage earners.
Not only Kabadiya, majority of poor and daily wage earners have been facing the same problem.
“The relief provided by the Sub-Metropolitan City has fallen short since a week. The curfew has been worrying us about how would we feed our children,” said Rajesh Balmiki of Nepalgunj-2.
Likewise, Jayaram Yadav, who had been selling 10 litres milk daily from Paraspur, said that the curfew had created monetary problem in his family.
The local administration was compelled to impose curfew to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic as the number of patients had been rising, said Assistant Chief District Officer Hari Pyakurel.
The denizens had been defying lockdown despite the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Thus, we were compelled to seal the city, he added.
“To limit the number of COVID-19 cases in 24 is our topmost priority,” said Pyakurel. The doctors said that it had become easier to conduct contact tracing and collect swab samples after the city got sealed off.
Dr. Prakash Thapa, Chief of Bheri Hospital, said that leaders of all religions were helping in contact tracing and swab collection.
Deputy Mayor of Nepalgunj Submetropolitan City Uma Thapa Magar said that COVID-19 tests would be conducted in all wards after test kits arrive from Kathmandu. Curfew was imposed in Nepalgunj from 11 AM on May 5 till midnight on May 7.