Manoj Banaita, Saptari, March29 : Rural municipality, Balan Bihul of Saptari has mobilised to track people who recently returned to Balan Bihul from foreign countries, including India, and keep them in quarantine, as all cases of Covid-19 . “The local government is supposed to track people returning from abroad and tell them to stay in self-isolation or quarantine facilities, they are yet to do so even as the risk of outbreak increases with people returning from virus-affected countries going about their daily lives.” Dayanand Goit, the chairperson said. He further said, “we have set up 15 bed quarantine at our healthpost and we have urged the people of our area to inform about them who have recently come from other countries.” The local administration of Balan Bihul is mobilizing a unit to track and isolate the people who might have been infected to prevent the virus from spreading. According to the data of the government, 10,000 people have returned to Nepal on airplanes from coronavirus-affected countries while thousands others have entered the country via border crossings India. Only this week, as Nepal announced a lockdown, over half a million people returned from India through various crossings and another half a million have left the Kathmandu Valley for their hometowns and villages fearing an outbreak. But the government has failed to effectively trace their status, place them into quarantine, and test them for possible infection.
