Though the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Nepal has not surged so rapidly till date, the detection of a new case of a 34-year-old woman in Kailali district lately indicates a critical situation ahead. With no fresh foreign travel history, the woman was tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. She is now undergoing treatment at the Seti State Hospital based in Dhangadhi. The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has stated that the woman is a sister-in-law of a person infected with the deadly virus. The person had come home a couple of days back from the United Arab Emirates. Dr. Bikash Devkota, spokesperson at the MoHP, said that the country has entered into the second phase of COVID-19 transmission with the confirmation of her case. Earlier, only returnees from foreign countries had been found infected with the virus. Similarly, two more cases of infection were diagnosed in western Nepal on Saturday itself. As of now, nine cases of COVID-19 have been detected within the country. However, one of them has recovered from the disease.
In its effort to contain the coronavirus disease in Nepal, the Federal Government has imposed a nationwide lockdown over the past two weeks. There is no doubt that the measure has proved to be effective in controlling the spread of the virus. It has also expanded facilities to different cities across the country to conduct tests for the virus. According to the MoHP, a total of 1,277 samples were tested nationwide until Saturday afternoon. With the identification of a locally transmitted case, epidemiologists have called on people to get tested for the virus to cope with the spread of the disease. Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked all the virus-hit countries to intensify virus tests. Besides, Nepal has focussed on maintaining sanitation and hygiene, and social distancing to prevent the possible transmission of the virus. Instead of becoming panicky, people should abide by the lockdown and stay at home. This is the best way for them to be safe from COVID-19. Since the detection of this lethal virus in Wuhan of China some three months ago, more than 60,000 people have died. The number of infections has crossed 1.2 million globally. Despite continuous efforts being made by medical scientists globally, no anti-coronavirus vaccine has so far been developed.
Since the movement of people has continued even after the introduction of the lockdown, the Federal Government has decided to adopt a tougher measure to forbid human mobility at the central, state and local levels. A meeting of the Council of Ministers held at the official residence of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Saturday decided to enforce a strict monitoring system to check human movement from one state to another, one district to another and one local level to another. Minister for Finance, and Communication and Information Technology Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada said that the government had taken the decision to prevent and control possible transmission of the virus from human contacts. Meanwhile, the government also decided to conduct Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) of COVID-19 in Kailali, Kanchanpur and Baglung districts in mass scale after the emergence of one case after another there.