Bhadrapur, May 23 :  As many as 1,200 people have been rescued and brought home from India through the five transit points over the last one week in Jhapa district.    
Although coronavirus infection has been found in 33 among these India-returnees, community transmission has been largely averted thanks to the careful and meticulous management of these people by the government bodies.    
One thousand 200 people have entered Nepal through the Kakarbhitta, Bhadrapur, Kachanakabal, Taghandubba and Gauriganj transit points of Jhapa since a week. Two hundred among them who are from Jhapa district have been kept in quarantine at the respective local levels while the remaining 1,000 are in quarantine at various holding centres and at quarantine facilities near the border.    
Thirty three among the India-returnees have tested positive to COVID-19 in course of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests carried out at Biratnagar and Dharan. They are from Kachanakabal rural municipality in the south of the district.    
The total number of infected people in Jhapa was 35, the highest in State-1. However, two have already returned home after recovery.    
District Police Office Jhapa's Superintendent Krishna Prasad Koirala said although coronavirus infection was found in 33 people among the India-returnees, utmost precaution was adopted in course of rescuing and transporting them to quarantines.    
"We immediately rescued the people who had arrived at the border transit points from various places of India and kept them in well-managed quarantine. The community transmission of coronavirus from the infected among them was prevented in this way, " he said. According to him, not a single person in the community has been infected coming in contact with the India-returnees so far in Jhapa district.    
A large number of Nepalis have started returning home from various cities of India with India relaxing the lockdown and re-operating railway service.    
Mechinagar municipality's deputy mayor Meena Upreti said the Nepali authorities have been bringing home the Nepalis arriving at the transit points by adopting utmost precaution and subjecting them to the required health screening. It is said more than 1,000 Nepalis have entered Nepal through the Kakarbhitta transit point alone.