19-year-old Nepali student tested positive for coronavirus; undergoing treatment in Teku

Kathmandu / Mar. 23: A Nepali student who recently returned to Nepal from France has tested positive for coronavirus, the Ministry of Health said today.

Organizing a press meet at his office, Minister for Health Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal said that the 19-year-old girl has tested COVID-19 positive. She came to Nepal from France via Qatar on March 17.

The girl, who was staying in isolation in her home, is now undergoing treatment at Sukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku in the capital.

The minister said that the infected patient’s family members have been sent to quarantine.

Minister Dhakal also said that the government is trying to track details of those whom she had met after she came back home. However, the minister did not disclose the identity of the patient.

This is the second confirmed COVID-19 case in Nepal. Earlier on January 24, a Nepali national who returned from China’s Wuhan city had tested positive for COVID-19. He returned home after being recovered a few days later.

Health condition of infected lady is normal, being treated at Teku

Health condition of the 19-year old girl who tested positive for COVID-19 has been normal and that she has been undergoing treatment at Shukra Raj Tropical and Infectitious Disease Hospital (STIDH), Teku.

Dr. Sagar Rajbhandari, director of the STIDH, informed that she was undergoing treatment at the hospital.

“We have been treating her and her health condition is normal,” he said.

Dr. Rajbhandari said that those people who flew to Kathmandu via Doha on the Qatar Airways with the virus infected lady are at high risk.

Those who were in the same flight with the girl infected with the COVID-19 and those who came in close contact with her are at high risk of having infected and they all need to get tested, he said.

Family members and relatives of the infected girl have been kept in quarantine at their homes.

Even before it was confirmed that she was infected with the novel coronavirus, the girl, who had come to Kathmandu from France via Doha, had been in quarantine at her home suspecting that she may have got infected and that she had contacted the Teku hospital few days after her arrival in oder for getting tested of the virus.

It is the second COVID-19 infection case in Nepal. Health Ministry had confirmed it Monday morning as the clinical report about the lady having infected with virus had come on Sunday night.