Fear drives foreign returnees to undergo COVID-19 confirmation tests in Nepal

It's already been over a month and half that Roshan Chamlagain returned to Nepal from France when COVID-19 was spreading slowly in Europe.

Chamlagain stayed in two-week self-quarantine after undergoing the screening at the airport and was asymptotic. However, on Friday he took a Rapid Diagnostic Test for COVID--19 at Teku Hospital.

Roshan Chamlagain told , "I don't have any problems but am here to be convinced that I have no issues regarding my health. Till now I haven't experienced any kind of symptoms but also came for my assurance and underwent the test,"

The RDT (Rapid Diagnostic Test) is now available in 60 out of 77 districts and it is mandatory for people who recently came back from abroad to undergo the test.

In case the RDT shows positive then the person is sent to isolation and samples are sent for the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method to check for the COVID-19 or the Corona Virus infection which takes 24 hours to give the result.

Nepal's Ministry of Population and Health on Thursday advised foreign returnees to go for RDT tests who arrived in the country two months before.

"This is for ourselves. It is for the good of the family and society too." Chamlagain added.

Recent foreign returnees have been rushing to hospitals for a coronavirus test after two people who had traveled abroad tested positive.

Two of the three-members of a family, residing at Sun City Apartment, were confirmed to be infected with the virus on April 14 after about a month they returned from the UK.

The family underwent Rapid Diagnostic Test on 13th April when they showed traces of infection and were rushed to Patan Hospital and kept in isolation where they underwent PCR for further confirmation.

Nepal had first reported a case of COVID-19 in January when a Wuhan, China returnee Ph.D. student tested positive for the virus.

The total number of COVID-19 cases stands at 16 with 15 imported cases and a case of local transmission. In order to flatten the curb, Nepal now is under complete lockdown from March 24 until April 27.

( With inputs from ANI )