Patna: Authorities have sealed India’s porous border with Nepal, banned entry of foreign nationals into Bihar and suspended bus services for a fortnight to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
However, there is no restriction on entry of people from the two countries but they will have to go through medical tests. Bihar shares a 729km-long porous border with Nepal.
The state government sealed the Indo-Nepal border shortly after Bihar health secretary held a meeting with the Cabinet secretary on Saturday. “The Indo-Nepal border has been entirely sealed for foreign nationals and surveillance stepped up along the border,” Bihar health secretary Sanjay Kumar told the media on Sunday.
Health officials said the action was taken after a symptomatic case was detected at one of the 49 transit points along the border and one case of coronavirus was confirmed in Nepal. Health officials said the districts bordering Nepal are under special focus for stringent surveillance at transit points.
Health minister Mangal Pandey said the state government had launched massive preventive measures to check spread of coronavirus. “Under part of this plan, we have deployed seven top health officials in seven Bihar districts bordering Nepal to closely monitor the situation,” Bihar health minister Pandey said.
According to a report of the Bihar health department, a total of 149,135 people have been screened at the Indo-Nepal border so far. In addition, 274 passengers who have returned from virus-affected countries after January 15, 2020 have been identified by the state surveillance system and kept under home quarantine. Of them, 86 have completed the mandatory 14-day observation while 188 people still remain in isolation.
Keeping in view the seriousness of the situation, at least six districts of Bihar state have also enforced prohibitory orders which prevent assembly of five or more people at a place. The districts enforcing this include Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Banka, Gopalganj, Katihar and Sheohar.
The state has already shut down schools, colleges, movie theatres, parks, zoos and museums till March 31 and told the residents to stay indoors as maximum as possible. In addition to that, the state government has issued the order for assigning duties to both class C and D employees of the state government on alternate days.
