Gandaki State government chief minister Prithvi Subba Gurung has stressed that essential services should be made available in the quarantines set up for prevention of the spread of coronavirus infection.

The Chief Minister said this after carrying out monitoring inspection at the quarantine set up at the Agricultural Enterprise Support and Training Centre at Malepatan of Pokhara Sub-metropolitan City-5 here on Thursday evening. The Gandaki State Health Directorate has set up the quarantine facility.

On the occasion, he instructed the authorities concerned to not to allow the shortage of any basic goods and essential services to the people kept in quarantine. The Chief Minister also acquired information on the physical facilities, beds and capacity of the quarantine.

He asserted that the State government would not allow any shortcomings in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, exhorting the health workers there to also work with dedication and high morale.

Seventeen people including those who have returned from foreign countries and those who arrived Pokhara from the eastern border have been kept at this facility with a capacity of accommodating 48 people.

A meeting of the High-level Steering Committee on March 23 had decided to set up quarantine facilities at the Disaster Management Centre Lamapatan, the Armed Police Force’s barracks and the forestry and education training centres as well besides at the Agricultural Training Centre. Chief Minister Gurung is the coordinator of the High-level Steering Committee for Prevention and Control of Coronavirus in Gandaki State.

Along with this, a 10-bed isolation ward is readied at the Pokhara Health Science Academy in preparation in case of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, samples of 15 suspected patients from the State were sent for testing for coronavirus. Of these, 13 have tested negative while the report of two is awaited, Gandaki State Health Directorate’s director Dr Binod Bindu Sharma said.