Kathmandu: Four key aides of Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday.
Another 70 security personal deployed in the Prime Minister’s residence have also tested positive. This was found during a routine testing conducted at the PM’s residence on Friday.
Now concerns have been raised over the health of Prime Minister Oli due to his chronic health condition, age factor and the recent kidney transplant, but his private secretariat has ruled out any immediate risk to Oli’ health. Still he will undergo a test very soon after his key aides and associates tested positive fpr the virus.
Oli’s three key aides — Chief Political Advisor Bishnu Rimal, Foreign Relations Advisor Rajan Bhattarai and Press Advisor Surya Thapa — have tested positive along with his Chief Personal Assistant, Indra Bhandari.
Rimal, Bhattarai and Thapa announced in Twitter that they have tested positive for coronavirus.
Likewise, Rajan Kafle, the personal photographer of Oli, some security guards and drivers deployed at his residence have also tested positive.
After Oli’s associates and aides tested positive with Covid, Oli, who had underwent kidney transplant in March, has isolated himself at his residence. After conducting the second kidney transplant that also followed the outbreak of the Covid-19, Oli has been strictly following the health protocols, including maintaining social and physical distance and not participating in any gathering, Thapa told the IANS.
Of late, after Nepal government lifted Covid restrictions, Kathmandu has seen a daily spike in the number of Covid cases. The Oli government has been criticised by the opposition parties for poor handling of the Covid situation.
As of Saturday, Nepal has reported 84,570 Covid cases, including 528 deaths.
