Arjun Poudel

The number of people seeking tests for Covid-19 has risen significantly after three people who returned from abroad tested positive for the disease six weeks after returning home.

People who returned to Nepal from disease-hit countries have been contacting their local government officials after three returnees from the UK tested positive when they took rapid diagnostic tests, officials said.

“Most of the people seeking coronavirus tests are those who have returned from the Middle-East, Europe and India,” Dr Sagar Rajbhandari, director at the Sukraraj Hospital, told the Post. “News that people tested positive even six weeks after returning home has alarmed people.” 

The Epidemiology and Disease Control Division also said that local governments have been seeking more test kits, as more people are demanding that they be tested. 

“We have also found people panicking about the possibility of contracting the disease,” Dr Basudev Pandey, director at the division, told the Post. “Some people, who returned months ago, are seeking tests under pressure from their neighbours and local government officials.” 

The Ministry of Health and Population said authorities have performed 15,800 Covid-19 tests as of Wednesday. While 6,871 of the tests were performed using the polymerase chain reaction method, 8,929 were done with rapid diagnostic test kits. 

Rapid diagnostic tests, which give results in a matter of minutes, look for antibodies in blood that the human body produces in response to a virus infection. The PCR method, which takes at least a day to come up with results, is used to look for signs of the virus in the patient’s nasal swab. According to scientists, a recovered patient can still test positive with the rapid diagnostic test. Cases of the disease are confirmed only after a PCR test is conducted on the suspect’s swab. 

The Kathmandu-based Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, which started testing using the PCR method, said it collected the nasal and throat swabs of 59 people on Wednesday.

Rapid diagnostic tests have been launched in 63 districts as of Wednesday, according to Dr Bikash Devkota, spokesperson for the Health Ministry. “A lot of districts have been reporting to us about the positive results from rapid diagnostic tests. But we need to perform the polymerase chain reaction test to confirm the result.”

Meanwhile, officials from Epidemiology and Disease Control division and Kageshwori- Manohara Municipality on Wednesday tested 298 people living in ‘A’ block of the Pepsicola-based Sun City Apartment, where the three returnees from the UK live.

“All reports were negative,” Laxmi Koirala, health coordinator of Kageshwori Manohara Municipality, told the Post. “We have sent the nasal and throat swabs of two men, who worked as domestic helps for the family, to the National Public Health Laboratory for a polymerase chain reaction test.”

The three people had tested positive as the municipality tested 63 people who had recently returned from abroad, according to Koirala. The health ministry said that one of the three people, who were in isolation at Patan Hospital, tested negative when tested using the PCR method.

Published on: 16 April 2020 | The Kathmandu Post