POKHARA: Gandaki State Chief Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung and other ministers have tested negative for coronavirus.

As said by Health Directorate at State, the Chief Ministers, ministers, secretaries and government employees: a total of 146 people on Tuesday had given swab samples to conduct the PCR tests for COVID-19 in view of the State Assembly meeting summoned for May 24. All the test results are negative.

Similarly, a total of 112 swab samples including from State Speaker Netranath Adhikari, Deputy-Speaker Srijana Sharma, SA members, SA staffs and SA members’ private secretaries were collected on Wednesday and the test reports are awaited.

On Friday, 47 more samples were collected and their results are also waited.

The SA session will be taking place at the Pokhara City Hall because the existing SA building is congested and it is not possible to maintain physical and social distancing during the meeting.

The City Hall is being repaired and works to daub it and fix new furniture here are going on for the session, according to SA secretariat officiating secretary Rajendra Neupane.

In the State, so far 1,520 PCR tests have been conducted and it has been planned to extend the coverage and reach the testing rates up to 3,000 to 4,000 soon, said State Health Director Dr Binod Bindu Sharma.

To date, five people from the State been found infected with the virus.

Of them, two persons have already recovered, two are under medical care at the Bharatpur-based Corona Hospital and a three-year-old boy is being treated in Kathmandu.