It has been a month since the country has observed lockdown which has brought everything in the country to a halt. Offices, schools, colleges, industries and business activities of all hue and stripes have been shut down while the people have been forced to remain indoors for maintaining social distancing to avoid the spread of the highly contagious virus. It is heartening to note that the people, barring a few incidents, have been following the government's lockdown measures diligently. These strong measures have been carried out with a sole purpose: to save the life of Nepalis, though these measures may have been detrimental to the nation's economy.

In a special interview to The Rising Nepal and its sister publication, Gorkhapatra, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli supported the government decision of putting the country in lockdown, which, according to him, is a must to protect the life of the people from the monstrous virus. Oli has precisely observed that the government is fully competent to deal with the present situation and it has adopted a policy of tracing infected ones and enlarging the scope of virus test among the suspected people while implementing the social distancing guidelines and health awareness programmes effectively. The government has now opted to implement the crisis-focused policies and programmes, without putting emphasis on economic recovery at present. He said that protecting the people's life is a major concern of the government.

The economic growth can rebound later or next year. At a time when the entire population of the nation is affected by the virus, one should not make impractical pledges to make people rich. Since the crisis has impacted the life of the rich and poor alike, it is highly imperative for the government to save lives. However, the PM emphasised the need of rehabilitating livelihoods while directing the government policies towards providing relief to informal sector workers as well as the poor and marginalised people during the time of crisis like the present one. Stressing that the government could give continuity to lockdown and border closure to avert the major human crisis, the PM ruled out the idea of forming a high-level all-party mechanism to manage the situation arisen out of COVID-19 threat. He said that since the government has been formed with a two-thirds majority, it is meaningless to form such a mechanism.

The threat of virus is a very serious one and its severity can be gauged from the situation being confronted by the highly developed nations such as the USA, the UK, Japan, Italy, Spain, China and many others. When these nations, well equipped with medical facilities, have been grappling to cure their virus-hit patients and to contain the spread of the virus, one can only imagine what would be the situation in a country like ours if the government did not implement effectively all preventive measures that are being followed across the globe. It is a time not to feel panicky about the side effects the COVID-19 has caused to the nation's economy and to other sectors. It is indeed a time, according to the PM, to be much concerned about for saving the lives of all Nepalis, for which the government has focused its attention at the moment.