RDT kits shortage hits Bajura

Shortage of rapid diagnostic test (RDT) kits has hampered tests for novel coronavirus in Bajura district. As a result, 160 people, who had come to the district from outside districts and kept in quarantine, have been sent home without conducting tests.

It is mandatory to conduct tests for coronavirus on people staying in quarantine before they are sent home after 14 days ‘ stay in quarantine. One hundred and sixty people have been sent home from quarantine in all the nine local levels in the district.

The District Health Office’s senior public health officer Daya Krishna Panta said they were compelled to send these people home without carrying out the tests due to the shortage of RDT kits. These people have been urged to observe seven days’ home quarantine as per the second point of the COVID-19 Test Guidelines. Panta said the RDT has been halted for two weeks in the district due to the lack of test kits.

So far, 1162 people have come to the district from various countries including India. The State government has so far sent only 1,300 kits to Bajura. According to Panta, they carried out tests on 1,160 people who returned from abroad using the kits supplied to them. All these people have tested negative to coronavirus.