A total of 366 people have been quarantined in Syangja when the entire country enters the fifth day of lockdown implemented by the government to prevent the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

They are staying in quarantine centers set up at different locations of all 11 municipalities in the district- in self quarantine and home quarantines. The number of those in home quarantines is 340 and 25 are in the quarantine centers built by the local governments and one is self-quarantining, according to District Police Office Syangja’s Deputy Superintendent of Police Nabin Krishna Bhandari.

A search for those recently returned home from abroad has been intensified as an attempt to stem the spread of COVID-19 and with this, the number of people in the quarantine has been growing, according to DSP Bhandari. The local governments are busy in making people aware of the importance of lockdown. People have been urged to stay at home, avoid non-essential movements and fully follow the lockdown rules to keep oneself and the family safe, he said.

The District Police on Friday took 16 vehicles under control for making movements by going against the lockdown.

Similarly, the Nepal Red Cross Society has distributed 1,000 pieces of face masks to those organisations working for people’s service in the Waling municipality.

However, no case of COVID-19 has been traced in the district. Two samples sent from the district were tested negative, said Chief District Officer Ram Bahadur Kurumbang. Swab samples of a youth who had recently returned home via the Qatar Air flight and his wife were sent to the Teku-based National Public Health Laboratory after the couple got fever, but the lab reports turned negative.

Six people from the district who had travelled on the same flight from Qatar along with a 19-year-old woman testing positive for the virus have already come into contact with the authority and are in quarantine.