New Delhi (NVI): The government of Nepal has declared a one-week lockdown in the country till March 31, even as a third person was tested positive for COVID-19 today, reports The Himalayan Times.
Nepal’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokhrel took the decision for lockdown on Monday, hours after a second coronavirus case was confirmed in Kathmandu.
The government has also asked people to remain inside homes. However, medicine shops and gas stations have been allowed to operate.
The hardest hit will be daily wage earners. 1.5 million people, many of them workers, have left Kathmandu, the capital, for their homes in rural districts, as per Nepalese media reports.
The Nepal defence ministry said the lockdown, which began yesterday, would be a “strict stay-at-home order” and curfew. Thus, those violating the lockdown will be fined Rs 1,000 or one month imprisonment or both.
Whereas, the government has already closed its borders with India and China for a week starting from Monday.
The National Public Health Laboratory is currently the only facility in Nepal able to test for coronavirus.
The Nepali government currently does not have any plan to conduct tests at other locations, let alone provide proper health care for those infected.
Meanwhile, number of deaths from coronovirus is over 17,000 people and infected more than 400,000 globally. Nepal goes to week-long lockdown over COVID-19Week-long lockdown in Nepal, 3rd person test positive.
