The provincial assembly to remain closed until October 22 as a precautionary measure to avoid further transmission.

BUTWAL, Oct 13: Deputy Speaker of Lumbini Province Assembly Krishni Tharu has also been diagnosed with novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). 

Taking to social media on Tuesday, Tharu informed that she was tested positive for the virus.

Earlier Speaker of the same assembly Purna Bahadur Gharti and Provincial Minister for Internal Affairs and Law Kul Prasad KC were diagnosed with the disease. Similarly, the Public Accounts Committee Chairman at the Lumbini Province Assembly Dilli Chuadhary and Chairman of the Industry and Tourism Committee Dadhiram Sharma were also tested positive for the virus. 

Sources said some staff and other members of the provincial assembly secretariat and a few journalists who attended the assembly meetings on October 5 and 6 are also among those tested positive for the virus. The provincial assembly meeting on October 6 had endorsed its name and permanent capital city through two-thirds majority votes. 

A total of 33 people have so far been diagnosed with the disease in the course of contact tracing after the Provincial Assembly Speaker, ministers and other lawmakers were diagnosed with the COVID-19 infection. According to Durlav Kumar Pun, the secretary at the Lumbini Province Assembly, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests were then conducted among 95 people who had come to the contact of the Provincial Assembly Speaker. 

The assembly will remain closed until October 22 to avoid possible transmission of COVID-19 to other people. 

 
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