By Our Reporter
The long open border with India has now emerged as the biggest to spread coronavirus in Nepal. It is evident from the fact that until Tuesday morning 16 of the 31 COVID-19 infected people in Nepal were Indian nationals. It means over 50 per cent of the COVID-19 patients in Nepal were the Indians. Moreover, the new 11 cases confirmed in Udaypur Tuesday evening were those who had come into contact with the infected people living in a mosque of Bhulke in the district. Earlier, two Nepalis who had returned home from India were tested positive for the disease.
The members of Tablighi Jamaat who arrived in Nepal in mid-February are blamed for the cases in Udaypur whereas in India the group has been blamed for spreading COVID-19 in India.
Till Tuesday evening, COVID-19 had not reached the community level in India as all the cases were imported. But now it has spread in Bhulke of Udaypur, and it was due to the open border, taking advantage of which the Jamaatis had reached Udaypur and other districts.
Besides these religious groups, many Indian are reportedly entering Nepal after the disease started spreading in India. Exploiting the slogan of ‘Roti-Beti’ relations between Nepal and India, many Indians are now suspected to arrive in southern plain where there are houses of their sons-in-law or fathers-in-law.
Although the government has beefed up the security in the border, they can sneak in from any point carrying the virus.
The open border that has turned into a heaven for criminals and smugglers in the past has now turned into a threat to transmitting contagious disease.
When the reality has been that the virus has spread in Nepal due to the Indian nationals, the Indian television channels a few weeks back said that Nepal was exporting COVID-19 to India. But the evidences showed otherwise, proving how the Indian channels tend to air fake stories against Nepal.
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