“Today’s Cabinet meeting took the decision to continue the lockdown in view of the rising number of coronavirus cases in the country,” said Padma Aryal, minister for land management, cooperatives, and poverty alleviation.

Nepal has been on lockdown since March 24 to contain the spread of the virus.

On April 26, the government had extended the lockdown, the third time, until May 7.

When the government first announced the lockdown, Nepal had reported just two Covid-19 cases. But this week alone, 23 new cases have been reported, with the national tally reaching 82. There have been no deaths.

Wednesday’s Cabinet decision to extend the lockdown is in line with the recommendation of the high-level committee for the prevention and control of Covid-19.

Concerns, however, have been growing if extending the lockdown is the only solution, with experts warning of the economy being hit hard if the government does not plan gradual relaxation of restrictions in some sectors like industries and agriculture

Critics say the government failed to utilize the lockdown over the last six weeks to step up measures to trace and treat and find ways to gradually lift the lockdown.

The government seems to be waiting for India’s response and is following suit, without considering its own ground reality into consideration.

A day after Nepal went on lockdown, India declared its lockdown on March 25. On Friday, the Indian government extended the lockdown for another two weeks after May 4, allowing ‘considerable relaxations’ in lower-risk districts that are marked as green and orange zones.

Discussions to mark districts as red, yellow and green zones had been going on tentatively in Nepal too, but the high-level committee for the prevention and control of Covid-19 during its Tuesday’s meeting dropped the idea, saying it’s not feasible.

“Since the concept of different zones isn’t appropriate for a small country like ours, today’s meeting discussed the idea but dropped it for now,” Narayan Bidari, member-secretary of the committee, told the Post on Tuesday evening.

The committee on Tuesday then decided to recommend the government continuation of the lockdown while putting no restrictions on essential services and gradually easing the lockdown in the industrial and agricultural sectors.

Source: The Kathmandu Post

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Source: Zermatt

The sudden rise of Covid-19 cases in the country has prompted the government to extend the lockdown, according to a Cabinet minister.

The government has decided to extend the ongoing nationwide lockdown until April 27.

A Cabinet meeting on Tuesday decided on the extension to stem the spread of the coronavirus, which has so far infected 16 people in Nepal, including three Indians.

The sudden rise of Covid-19 cases in the country has prompted the government to extend the lockdown for a further 12 days, a minister told the Post.

This is the third extension to the lockdown since it was first implemented on March 24.

Two people from the Valley tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, a day after two others—a woman from Kailali and a man from Rautahat—were confirmed to have been infected. The Health Ministry confirmed three cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, a week after as many cases were reported in Kailali and Kanchanpur, including one case of local transmission. Earlier, infections had been reported from Kathmandu, Kanchanpur, Kailali and Baglung.

According to the minister, the Cabinet meeting also decided to continue with the prohibition on all international flights and the border closure until May 1.

The Nepal government decision to extend the lockdown came hours after India’s decision to extend its lockdown until May 3.

With rapid diagnostic tests launched across the country, more cases are expected to emerge and government officials said that the lockdown is the only way to contain the spread of the disease at this point in time.

Source: The Kathmandu Post

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Given that the incubation time for the virus is 14 days, the lockdown could last for at least one more week, according to Health Minister Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal.

Six days into the seven-day nationwide lockdown, the government has begun necessary preparations to extend the lockdown citing the increase in the number of new cases of Covid-19.

A Sunday meeting of the high-level coordination committee led by Ishwar Pokhrel will discuss the matter and will forward the extension proposal to the Cabinet, Surya Thapa, press advisor to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, told the Post.

The Cabinet is set to meet in the evening and will assess all the situation across the country, and other progress being made in preparation to combat Covid-19, said Thapa.

According to one minister, despite some sporadic incidents of people disobeying the nationwide lockdown, it has been largely successful, which has led the Pokhrel-led committee to mull extending the lockdown for a week, beginning March 31, Tuesday.

The committee will also come up with provisions to ensure that people have access to daily essentials, along with coming up with measures to support daily wage earners and other economically vulnerable groups.

Health Minister Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal said that the government would take necessary decisions to continue with the lockdown a day before the week-long lockdown comes to an end.

“We are considering continuing with the lockdown for at least one more week,” said Dhakal. “Since the quarantine period is 14 days, we are thinking of going for at least 14 days of lockdown.”

Source: The Kathmandu Post