Damauli, Aug 13 

Tanahun’s Devghat rural municipality has been sealed off for a week after a coronavirus was found to have transmitted to two people of the community.

In order to check the coronavirus outbreak risk, the rural municipality took the decision to seal off its boundary from today onward. The coronavirus was found to have contracted with a 54-year-old and 30-year-old male of Devghat rural municipality-5.

They had tested positive for the virus in the examination carried out at the Bharatpur Hospital COVID-19 Laboratory. Devghat rural municipality chair Durga Bahadur Thapa informed the decision was made to seal off Devghat for a week as the persons testing positive for coronavirus were said to be in contact with several other people.

“One of the infected is a religious personality. He was found to be in touch with many people. The decision was made thinking havoc would wreak if timely intervention was not made”, Thapa added. With this, the services delivered from the rural municipality and ward offices have also been closed down for a week. Swab collection of 43 other suspects were also made on Wednesday and sent to the Bharatpur Lab for PCR test.

The 30-year-old infected is a government employee based in Kathmandu. He has been at home quarantine after the confirmation of coronavirus infection among his colleagues at the office. Health Section chief of the rural municipality Pradeep Kumar Budhathoki informed collection of swab samples of other people would be done on Sunday after carrying out contact tracing. It may be noted that two community-level transmission cases each were detected in Bhanu municipality and Bandipur rural municipality of Tanahun district on Tuesday. Bhanu municipality has sealed off its town area for a week effective from Tuesday onward.

Meanwhile, the office of Devghat Area Development Committee has been closed from today after diagnosis of corona infection with its chairperson. Issuing a notice on Wednesday, the Committee has informed that its regular operation would remain closed up to 20 August.

However, the cremation management works and the services delivered from Devghat Old Age Home would continue as the most essential service, the committee sources said.