Bajhang, May 24 -- Saipal Rural Municipality, a remote local unit in Bajhang district, has dispatched health workers to the highlands where thousands of yarsagumba (Cordyceps sinensis) collectors have gathered to forage for the highly-priced caterpillar fungus.

This is the first time that a local unit has sent health teams to the highlands of Bajhang for the welfare of the collectors.

Every year a couple of deaths are reported among the pickers in the Bajhang highlands for a lack of timely medical attention to easily treatable ailments such as fever, common cold and diarrhoea, among others. This year, the collectors' health is more at risk as the Covid-19 pandemic rages across the country, says Lokendra Jethara, the health unit chief of...