THE government has appeared to have realised a need to absolve the people of the tediously lengthy lockdown that has sapped the country's economy and roiled the people to the hilt. To address this grave situation, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli held a meeting with experts belonging to eclectic fields and sought vital inputs with a view to easing the lockdown restrictions that were in place since March 24. As we all are aware, the protracted lockdown has brought the nation to a standstill, hitting hard the people's life as never before. More disconcerting is the fact that the frustrated people, especially those engaged in business, entrepreneurship and various vocations, as well as some professionals and students, have expressed dejection over the extended lockdown. As their frustration has kept on piling, many among these people have threatened to disobey the lockdown guidelines. The warning should be considered a wake-up call to do something about it.

Undoubtedly, the government has come under tremendous pressure from all sides to find alternatives to the prolonged lockdown for which the PM sought advice from concerned experts on its modalities and the strategies to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus. The experts had reportedly advised the PM that it was an opportune time for the government to relax the lockdown to allow businesses, enterprises and people's mobility to resume partially, if not fully. The government can fix regions, districts or areas into the green, yellow and red zones and should ease restrictions accordingly. They also advised that the government should upgrade the standard of existing quarantine and isolation centres across the nation and should ram up testing and tracing of virus infections. They also urged him to allow the private hospitals and health centres to run coronavirus testing that would help find cases and thus ease the government's burden of conducting such tests.

The advice of the experts couldn't have come at a better time for the government. The health experts across the world have come up with the idea that the coronavirus may remain with us for a lengthier period until a potential vaccine or medicine is found. Even the countries that have been worst affected have started opening up their businesses and day-to-day activities by easing restrictions partially or fully. In the meantime, our Health Minister had informed that the coronavirus spread in the country would touch its peak at 15,000, following which the number of infection begins coming down.

However, the Health Minister did not divulge the exact time when this peak level will be reached and when the infection rate starts to climb down. One cannot therefore wait for the infection to reach its peak and then come down. On the other hand, the government must ponder over the existing level of frustration among the people and do its best to address their hardships. The advice from the experts has rightly been aimed at giving relief to the frustrated people both by easing the restrictions and controlling the spread of the virus. It would consequently be in the greater interests of the country and people if the government goes by experts’ advice in positive manner.