BANKE: High alert has been adopted at the border area in Rupaidiya in Banke district in view of the increasing cases of COVID-19 in India.

A health desk has been set up at the border which is screening 150 to 200 persons with antigen tests on a daily basis, lab officer at the Health Desk, Chiran Gyawali, said.

According to him, 6,400 persons entering Nepal through the border were given antigen tests last month and only four of them tested positive.

However, not a single person has tested positive to corona virus infection in the last one week.

Vaccination card has been made mandatory at the border. “We conduct antigen test on a person if the person does not have the vaccination card proving that he/she has been administered the second dose vaccine against COVID-19,” Gyawali added.

“There is no alarming situation as in last year since most people have been vaccinated. People are not allowed to enter Nepal without subjecting them to test for the corona virus infection,” he informed.

Four thousand people with vaccination cards have entered and exited Nepal through the border in the last one month.

Chief of the Public Health Office, Banke, Dheer Jung Shah said health checkup has been strictly implemented at the border region.

He said a team of five health workers has been mobilized since some weeks for the health screening at the border.