April 27 : With the successful treatment and discharge of two patients infected with COVID-19 here in the Baglung district recovered and were sent back home recently, the tense situation triggered by this deadly in the district has improved somewhat.
Nineteen years old Anshu Sapkota of the Baglung Municipality-4 and sixty five years old Ankumari Poudel of the Baglung Municipality-3 got recently cured from the deadly disease at Dhaulagiri Zonal Hospital in the district.
Admitting that some progress is being made in terms of the risk minimization of the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Office, Baglung Chief Suraj Gurau said that there is an urgent need to apply a new precaution strategy to fight the pandemic in a more effective way.
Garau underscored the need for carrying out a surveillance over those entering the district from big cities in the country as well as from the foreign countries. He also informed that contact tracing was done and those coming in contact with those infected ones were also put to test but all of them were tested negative in the COVID-19 test. “If we prevent infection from out of district, we can prevent and control this infection in the district itself,” he said calling for all-side cooperation.
Local units here have been asked to enforce home quarantine on those entering the district from outside to prevent the community level transmission of the deadly infection. So far, according to the Health Office Baglung, the rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) have been conducted on a total of 1,122 persons suspected to have contracted the COVID-19 while 63 people have undergone the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. All results are negative.
Although a 65-year-old woman from Kathekhola Rural Municipality-6 was earlier tested positive for rapid diagnostic test, she tested negative in the PCR test later. Tests were being conducted on any suspected persons till date. Locals have called for following lockdown, maintaining physical distancing and observing precaution against this flu-like infection to prevent and control it. Chief of the Dhaulagiri Zonal Hospital, Shailendra BK Pokharel, argued that although has been Baglung COVID-19-free district now, it cannot be said to be entirely safe.
“Although we were successful in treating COVID-19 patients and sending them home hale and hearty, we cannot afford to remain assured that there would be no any COVID-19 cases in the district in future,” warned Dr Pokharel. Pokharel viewed that we should be prepared for any circumstances that may unfold in future. According to him, there were still risks lurking in other parts of the country with new COVID-19 cases being reported in the country almost in the daily basis.
He asserted that the lockdown should not be relaxed immediately as there was a high chance of infection entering Baglung from other districts in the country. “We should be aware and alert. The stakeholders should formulate plans accordingly,” he said. Although the treatment of COVID-19 was a new experience for the health workers here, they succeeded in recovery of the patients despite the resources constraints. Dr Pokharel shared, “We worked with a team and with high morale.” Dhaulagiri Hospital, where the test and treatment of COVID-19 patients was conducted, is moving ahead with the project of the construction of physical infrastructures including isolation wards. RSS
