GULMI, May 18: Gulmi district reported its first COVID-19 case on Monday.
A 41-year-old man hailing from Madane Rural Municipality-6 tested positive for coronavirus today afternoon, according to Bikash Devkota, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population. He is one of the 53 coronavirus patients who tested positive for COVID-19 today.
The throat swab of the man, who is a teacher in his village, came positive during the PCR testing conducted at a provincial lab in Bhairahawa today afternoon.
First case of novel coronavirus in a person without recent trav...
According to Sarita Khadka, the vice chair of the rural municipality, the man left home for Butwal for treatment after he suffered from light fever and continuous vomiting. His throat swab was collected while he was undergoing treatment at the Manigram-based hospital this afternoon. “His health condition is normal,” she added.
Local government officials were taken by surprise after the man tested positive for the deadly virus because he did not have any recent travel history after the country went into a lockdown on March 24. "It is immediately not clear how the person got infected by the virus even though he did not visit other places after the lockdown started," Khadka told Republica Online.
The local authorities in the rural municipality had conducted COVID-19 RDT tests on 14 persons who had come from India some two months ago. The persons who were accompanying the infected person have been kept in isolation.
"Now, we will start contact-tracing," she said.
