KANCHANPUR: With the inflow of home returnees dreading second wave of coronavirus in India, the pandemic explosion in the country has been dreaded the most.
However, due to health authorities’ negligence the health desks set up at the border checkpoint operate without any testing tools exposing all to the pandemic transmission.
Kanchanpur district is bordered with Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand states of India. Thousands of people return to Nepal through this route. The government claims that the people who enter Nepal from India are allowed only after conducting an antigen test.
However, the health desk officials send the people in without tests citing the lack of antigen kits.
When asked why they are sending the people without tests, Shiva Raj Sunar, the Chief of District Health Office, Kanchanpur, confessed that they have been sending without tests as they did not get the antigen kits as needed.
“We have written to the government, but the supplies are never enough,” Sunar said, “However, the people with symptoms are sent to hospital where there swabs are collected and sent for coronavirus tests.”
Most of the health desks set up in the border areas fare no better fate.