Lockdown becomes fitting shield and Kalapani elixir to PM Oli By Prajwal Shrestha The country has been in lockdown for 78 days. The government has imposed the nationwide lockdown on March 24 to control the spread of coronavirus. However, after the enforcement of lockdown, the single-digit COVID-cases increased to nearly 4,000 with 15 deaths in 78 days, which clearly shows that lockdown could not be effective in controlling the infections although it had slowed infection in the initial phase of the restriction. Police forcefully shutting down shops opened by shopkeepers defying prolonged lockdown on 9 June in New Road. Photo courtesy: Online Khabar Again, the government did make no visible preparation for weeks after imposing the lockdown. Only the local levels made a few poorly managed quarantines. Even the government failed to bring required medicines and test kits during the lockdown. Instead the corrupt officials of the Health Ministry and those close to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli tried to cash in on the situation to make money, as a result, the first lot of the testing kits brought from China through a controversial supplier having nexus with PM Oli, Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokhrel and PM’s political advisor Bishnu Rimal was dragged not only into controversy but it also tarnished the image of the government in public. Still many people think that the virus has provided an opportunity to earn for the corrupt men in the government. After the controversy, the government allowed Nepali Army to supply the testing kits and medicines, but they are still insufficient. It is evident from the fact that Sudurpashim State suspended testing of virus in lack of kits and machines. When the virus cases are increasing by 200 to over 300 everyday, the government has been unable to test the quarantined people who had returned from India, spreading a fear that infection could soon reach the community. How helpless the government has been was revealed by Health and Population Minister Bhanubhakta Dhakal while responding to the lawmakers in the House of Representatives. He told the House on Monday that the government had targeted to conduct 10,000 COVID-19 tests daily only from July. This means, the government could be doing nothing for next three weeks to improve the situation. According to the Health Ministry, Nepal saw additional 314 cases of coronavirus on Monday, taking the national tally to 3,762. If the cases increase in the current pace, Nepal will have more than 10,000 cases by July. However, there are high chances of further spike in cases as the people have started defying the lockdown and the government is also preparing to ease it. Even the capital city saw a swift increase in vehicular movements in the past four days while the government had to deploy police to shut the shops of New Road area. Again, more people are arriving in Kathmandu from outside the Valley. These all show that coronovirus will soon be transmitted to community and the government has not made preparations for that. Fortunately, till now COVID-19 has not been transmitted to the community and all the cases till now are imported ones, mostly from India. Most of the 15 fatalities had also occurred in lack of treatment and even food for the quarantined kids and others. A few of them died in poorly managed quarantines and others for other reasons, but tested positive for virus after their death. If the government does not take stricter steps immediately to contain the virus, the situation could be out of control once it spreads in the community level. But sadly, the government does not look serious about this. Going by the poor performance of the government and weak implementation of lockdown for two and a half-months, and rising cases of COVID-19, one can aptly argue that the lockdown could only become a shield to save Prime Minister Oli’s fall. When the lockdown had averted the risk of losing power, the inauguration of the road in Kalapani by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on May 8 served as elixir for PM Oli. After May-8 incident, many things have gone in favour of PM Oli even if his government has failed to in the battle against the virus. As such, Oli is sure to remain in power no matter how much the virus could ravage and ill-governance persists.