Kathmandu, Oct. 6 -- The Epidemiology and Disease Control Division has directed doctors and health workers serving in government health facilities across the country to remain on standby to serve patients during the Dashain festival.

The directive is aimed at ensuring patients get timely treatment as there will be extended holidays, according to Dr Bibek Kumar Lal, director at the division.

Lal said the division is more alert this time also because the country is celebrating Dashain this year just weeks after an outbreak of dengue, which spread to most of the districts, claiming at least six lives and leaving nearly 9,000 hospitalised.

"We have directed doctors to be on call round the clock and take leave on a rotational basis," Lal to...