After landlords in Kathmandu pressured their renters unnecessarily to show PCR test reports of Covid-19 infection, the line for the test in the Teku hospital at Sukraraj Tropical and infectious Disease Hospital , Teku was increased.

Hundreds of people with less financial means to pay for the PCR tests are queuing up in Teku for the past one month while those having money are being tested quickly. Most people in that queue were the daily wage laborers in Kathmandu from Province number 2 , women who are two months pregnant and other patients

Suresh Mandal, a construction worker in Kathmandu, went to his home Kalaiya Municipality-8, Bara on last April by walking for 4 days as the work stopped and problem of food raised due to the lockdown. His family is dependent on daily wages and could not support themselves. He came to Kathmandu again after the contractor called him back for the work but the landlord did not permit him to enter the house without PCR test. Another similar case is of Rajnesh Thakur, a barber in Bafal, Kathmandu who is also in the queue with eating bitten rice and snacks only. Both have said that they are getting cold and cough waiting long for the test.

Doctors at Teku Hospital expressed that the problem of the hospital was the limited space, capacity of health workers and laboratory. Public health experts say that sitting in line for such a long without maintaining physical distance and following the health protocol increases the risk of corona infection

Meanwhile, the health workers are continuing the collection and testing of swabs at high risk of corona infection. Doctors urged the landlords to let the renters stay in the home isolation for a week and then send them for PCR tests only if they show symptoms.