People around Bahrabise municipality of Sindhupalchowk have been ordered to remain in home quarantine after attending cremation of father of Nepali Congress(NC) leader and former minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet who tested positive for COVID-19 five days after his death.
Khadga Bahadur Basnet, 84, had died at the Manmohan Cardiothoracic Vascular and Transplant Center on August 6. He was cremated at the bank of Sunkoshi in Bahrabise the next day in attendance of around 500 persons.
The administration has sealed Bahrabise Bazar and imposed prohibitory orders from Khakdal Khola at Bahrabise-3 in the east, Ramche Bazar in ward No 9 in the west, East Karthali Budepa in ward No 2 in the north and Sunkoshi Bazr in the south after the Health Ministry during the daily press briefing on Tuesday confirmed that the deceased has tested positive.
"We didn't know he was positive when he was cremated. We have asked people to home-quarantine as his report arrived positive four days after cremation," Mayor of Bahrabise Nimphunjo Sherpa told Setopati.
Sherpa said the Basnet family will be tested first and everyone who attended the cremation will be tested if anyone in the family tests positive.
The hospital had allowed the family to take the body even before the report of PCR test arrived. NC central member Mohan Bahadur Basnet claimed the family is not to blame for the fiasco. "The team of doctors who were involved in dad's treatment told us that he died at 11:45 pm on August 6 due to problems in both the kidneys," he stated. "The hospital had asked us to take the body immediately but we want to inform everyone that we took the body only at seven the next morning."
He pointed that his father had tested negative when he was first admitted at the hospital and questioned why the report that should have arrived in six hours came almost a week later. "Why did they inhumanely ask us to take the body in the midnight immediately after his death if he was infected?" he asked.
A hospital doctor, however, claimed that permission to take the body was granted due to family pressure. "It is true that the report came late. The body should not have been allowed to be taken. It should have been kept at the hospital despite the family's hurry even withstanding the pressure. It was apparently allowed to be taken."
