KATHMANDU, March 28: Coronavirus infections in Nepal have climbed to five today after a 19-year-old female who returned to the country from Belgium via Qatar tested positive for COVID-19, authorities said.
The country had witnessed coronavirus infection for the first time on January 24. All of them are imported cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.
It has come to the light that the second and the fifth COVID-19 infected persons had shared the same Qatar Airways flight on March 17. It has not been clear yet whether other passengers who boarded the same flight also got infected by the novel coronavirus. The MoHP authorities said they are tracking all the details regarding the passengers who had boarded the same flight.
According to the MoHP, a PhD student who came to Nepal from China’s virus-hit Wuhan city was tested positive for the coronavirus after a lab test at WHO Collaborating Center, Hong Kong. The 31-year-old man, however, had recovered and returned home a few days later.
Qatar Airways starts scheduled flight to Málaga in Spain
Two months after the first infection was reported, the MoHP confirmed the second coronavirus case on March 23. A 19-year-old female student who came to Nepal from France via Qatar tested positive for the deadly virus.
The student is under isolation at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku in Kathmandu. According to the ministry, she had arrived in Nepal on March 17 via Qatar Airways.
Another individual was tested positive for coronavirus in Nepal on March 25. The coronavirus patient, 32, is now undergoing treatment at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital (STIDH), Teku.
The man was a Nepali migrant worker based in the gulf nation the United Arab Emirates.
On Friday, a man from Dhangadhi tested positive for coronavirus. It was the first confirmed case outside the capital.
A swab sample of the 34-year-old Gulf returnee tested positive at the National Public Health Laboratory at Teku. The man returned from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. He was admitted to Seti Zonal Hospital in Dhangadhi on March 24. His swab sample was brought to Kathmandu for testing and it has tested positive,” Bikash Devkota, spokesperson for the ministry said.
The patient is currently in the isolation ward at Seti Zonal Hospital.
Fifth COVID-19 case has been confirmed in Nepal today. A 19-year-old girl who traveled to Nepal from Belgium via Qatar tested positive for coronavirus. She is in contact with doctors and her condition is normal," the ministry spokesperson Bikas Devkota said on a Facebook live broadcast.
The patient hails from Baglung.
