-Ramesh Giri

Sixty two Nepali returnees from various countries have been quarantined at Kharipati in Bhaktapur. Despite government’s ban on return from abroad for the time being over coronavirus crisis, they had landed at Tribhuvan International Airport on Saturday through various transits and were straightly taken to Bhaktapur for quarantine, it has been said. Of them, who were repatriated from foreign countries including Qatar and UAE, 49 boarded a Thai Airways plane and 13 an Air India plane. They were escorted on a bus to Kharipati at around 6pm, said Superintendent of Police Sabin Pradhan. The quarantined Nepalis include 57 men, five women and a 76-year-old man. Earlier, 175 Nepalis, who were rescued from Wuhan in China where the infection was first detected, were quarantined at the same location.

Temperature of the deported Nepalis was measured at both the airport and the quarantine area, said colonel Shiva Prasad Poudel. At the quarantine, a team of health workers including two doctors are attending to the people and an ambulance and its driver has been kept standby, it has been said.

Their swabs would be collected tomorrow (Sunday), said Pradhan, adding that they would be quarantined for at least 14 days, and would be sent to Shukraraj Tropical Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku for treatment if found infected.

The quarantined people themselves are bound to bear their food expenses. For them, food items are packed and supplied from outside. A joint security squad of Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force has provided security at the quarantine zone and all arrangements have been made as per the standards of the World Health Organisation, said Pradhan. Fearing coronavirus, the government on Wednesday has banned incoming Nepali passengers from all European countries, Gulf countries, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan into Nepal until April 15 beginning March 20.