KATHMANDU, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Dr. Dibya Singh, Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's personal physician, has been infected with COVID-19, Nepali officials said.
Dr. Singh, who is also dean at the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University (TU) which runs the TU Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, was confirmed to be infected with coronavirus on Friday.
"She was tested positive after coming into contact with hospital staff infected with the virus," Dr. Shanta Kumar Das, coordinator of COVID-19 Management Committee at the TU Teaching Hospital told Xinhua on Saturday evening.
"Five days after coming into contact with the staff infected with the virus in a meeting, she developed symptoms of COVID-19 and was tested positive."
According to him, other participants in the meeting, who have shown no COVID-19 symptoms, are currently in home quarantine.
Dr. Das said there is little risk for the prime minister to get infected as Dr. Singh has not visited the prime minister for more than two weeks.
Prime Minister Oli's Press Advisor Surya Thapa told Xinhua on Saturday that Dr. Singh has not visited the prime minister for long as he does not need regular check up at the moment. "So, I find little risk to the prime minister for Dr. Singh being tested positive for coronavirus," Thapa said, adding that he was unaware if Prime Minister Oli would avoid meeting after his private doctor got infected.
Several Nepali lawmakers at the federal parliament have also been tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to a senior doctor assigned at the Nepali parliament.
Dr. Puspa Raj Rijal, in-charge of the medical team assigned at the Nepali parliament told Xinhua on Saturday that all those lawmakers who were infected with coronavirus have recovered.
"Amid risks to the lawmakers from the pandemic, we have made necessary arrangements of health workers, isolation room, oxygen, ambulance at the parliamentary secretariat and we can take any COVID-19 patient to nearby hospitals within five minutes," said Dr. Rijal.
As of Saturday, Nepal confirmed 71,821 COVID-19 cases while the pandemic caused the death of 467 people, according to Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population.