By Our Reporter
The government badly marred by the dispute within the ruling party and non-cooperation from the party leaders has miserably failed to control Covid-19 spread across the country. The increasing cases of COVID-19 and deaths, mostly in the big cities, including Kathmandu are a testimony to this bitter reality.
Although Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Health Minister Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal have not admitted the failure of the government in its fight against the coronavirus, cases have been increasing every other day. On Tuesday, 638 cases were detected across the country, the highest cases after the lifting of the lockdown, and 114 of them were reported from the Kathmandu, the highest ever single-day spike.
Poor monitoring of the Nepal-India border and the entry points of the Kathmandu Valley are blamed for the rising cases in Kathmandu and other districts. It is evident from the fact that 60% of the infected persons found in Kathmandu in the last 10 days have arrived from Bara, Prasa and India. Had the entry points of Kathmandu been tightened and had everyone entering Kathmandu been put in quarantines, the spread of cases could have been much less.
Many people arrive in Dhading-Kathmandu border by paying a high fare to private motors and they walk to Kathmandu, the police sometimes take bribe and let them enter the valley. The businessmen and workers have arrived in Kathmandu from India after the lifting of the restriction. And these people who entered Kathmandu carrying virus spread the disease in the valley. Hence, the home ministry has also failed to monitor the entry points. Although the municipalities have been urging the government to shut down the entry points, the government has not been ready to do that as it has given more priority to the economy than the life of people.
Nepali Congress has recently claimed that the mechanism formed by the government to control Covid-19 had completely failed.
The main opposition party said the Health Ministry leadership was inefficient as it ignored qualification, seniority and professionalism while designating the staff members for the mechanism and it demanded that the government give effective leadership to the mechanism and the Ministry.
Organising a press meet at the party office, Sanepa of Lalitpur, NC COVID-19 Monitoring Committee coordinator Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat Monday urged people to be self-alert as the government was not reliable in the fight against COVID-19.
With the growing cases, the hospital beds, ICU and ventilators have already been occupied in Kathmandu. Total ICU beds available for COVID-19 patients is 1134 and the number of ventilators is 576 while the active cases as of Tuesday were 7,201 and total cases reached 23,948 with 83 deaths.
Meanwhile, with the growing cases, the government on Monday took a few decisions to slow down the spread of the coronavirus in Kathmandu. It instructed all offices of government and private sectors in the Kathmandu Valley and other districts with over 200 active cases of the coronavirus to promote ‘work from home’ culture.
The government also decided to enforce alternate work schedule with the presence of 50 per cent employees every day in all the government offices, non-governmental organisations, banks and financial institutions. The government has again barred table-based service in hotels and restaurants operating in the Valley and other districts where there are over 200 active cases.
The Cabinet meeting has suspended all other types of services being provided by the government offices which cannot be delivered from online, virtual or any other means.
The government has urged the people to observe festivals staying at homes.
Similarly, the Cabinet meeting decided to ban the entry of all types of vehicles and humans into the Capital from the districts where there are over 200 cases of the virus infection. The Cabinet has requested all the State government and the local bodies to put restrictions on operating street shops of all kinds like clothing items, vegetable shops on the pushcarts in the valley and other districts.
Likewise, the government has instructed the local bodies to strictly monitor the closed services which have come into operation after the end of the lockdown like footsal centres, fitness clubs, beauty parlours, massage centres, saloons, swimming pools, tuition centres and schools and colleges.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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