ROLPA, Nov 30: Health professionals in Rolpa have urged the government to add isolation centers and speed up contact tracing to contain COVID19; 'or else get ready for irreparable loss'.
They have expressed worries not only over people's changing behavior against social distancing and other preventive measures but also the local authorities' indifference over the looming danger.
Noticeably, schools and marketplaces are fully open in Rolpa, let alone other offices. Worse still, the only isolation center, which was run by the 'District Covid Crisis Management Committee' at Libang is no longer in operation.
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"The situation is very dangerous. Both the government and commoners have been behaving like the pandemic is already over. But the reality is, Rolpa is at risk like never before," said Information Officer at District Hospital of Rolpa Kul Bahadur Dangi. "The number of the infected person looks low just because no swab tests are being done. But this virus has already reached out to the community massively," he added.
Dangi argued that more isolation centers needed to be added. "People hardly have attached toilet bathrooms or enough space for isolation at home here. When one person is infected, they risk everyone in the family. The virus is spreading rapidly that way," he said.
The District Covid Crisis Management Committee itself had decided to close down the isolation center. It had urged people to stay at home in isolation. Around 200 infected people had benefited from the isolation center built at Libang of Rolpa at the cost of Rs 3 million.
Doctors and nurses also stated that the insensitivity shown by the local authority as well as general people is going to cost very high. Rolpa cannot afford advanced health care; neither can swab be sent off to the cities for testing all that easily, they maintained.
A doctor at the hospital, Prakash Budha, said he is already very nervous about the situation. There are infected people at banks, hotels, markets, everywhere, and they are roaming freely, he said. "The worry is that some cases turn out to be critical and we are not in a position to give facility even for minor health problems due to constraints," he said. "Virus has already spread far and wide."
As per government data, 224 people in Rolpa got infected by COVID19 so far, while 199 have already recovered and three are said to have succumbed to the complications.
