Kathmandu, Aug 23
The Valley Municipal Forum has decided to
expand the contact tracing and testing base in all the municipalities in the
Kathmandu Valley.
Expressing its serious concerns to the
probability of COVID-19 contagion to the community level in the valley, a meeting
of the forum on Sunday had decided to this effect.
The meeting was attended by the Chairperson
of the Forum and Mayor of Kathmandu Municipality Bidya Sundar Shakya,
Vice-chair of the Forum and Mayor of Lalitpur Metropolis Chiri Babu Maharjan,
and Secretary of the Forum and Mayor of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality Madan
Sundar Shrestha.
"The number of coronavirus infected
people has gone up significantly every day. If this situation persisted for
some more days, the virus would make its way to the community," said
Shakya.
He said that the community level
transmission of the disease in the federal Capital would create havoc in
administration and many other works. Therefore, the forum had plan to move
unitedly ahead to expedite the contact tracing and virus testing in the valley.
The dense settlement in various parts of the cities in the valley would create
ground for the easy and rapid transmission of the virus.
A restriction order was issued in the
valley four days ago with the increasing graph of the coronavirus patients. The
local governments here have decided to utilise the restriction period to expand
the contact tracing and testing base.
"We will make a provision to treat
everyone tested positive to the virus. People who are not in the circle of
contact tracing but have exhibited the symptoms of COVID-19 would be tested and
treated," said Shakya.
The meeting will continue to make further
decision regarding the matter.
Making continuous announcement through the
loudspeaker in order to create awareness is also in the priority where the
municipalities will appeal people with symptoms to contact the local
governments.
Secretary Shrestha said that they would
move ahead with a set time-table for the contact tracing and testing.
"We plan to contact tracing for 15,000
to 20,000 people. The meeting tomorrow will decide about details of the plan
such as where to begin and when to conduct the testing," he said.
He said that the people were urged to stay
in their home so if we don’t do something important to check the spread of the
virus, there might not be better opportunity in the future.
The forum had interacted with the
experts-including Dr. Khem Karki, public health advisor to the Health Minister
Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal, Mahendra Prasad Shrestha, chief expert of the Health
Ministry and director of Epidemiology and Disease Control Division at the
Department of Health Services, Dr. Bashu Dev Pandey.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 24 August 2020.
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