By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Apr. 21: The Federal government has given the right to impose lockdown or take any other additional measures to each local government if the active cases of the COVID-19 infection reach 200 in rural municipality and 1,000 in any metropolitan cities.
Issuing a 30-point order on Monday, the Federal government in its point number 29 has stated that if the active cases of the virus reach 1,000 in any metropolitan city or municipality, the area could be declared highly risky zone and the local administration could introduce further restrictions to contain the virus spread.
Similarly, if the active cases in any Sub-metropolitan City reach 500 per day, such local areas would also be declared as highly risky zone and further strict measures would be implemented upon the order and decision of the local government and district administration offices.
On behalf of Municipality and Rural Municipality, the mayors/chairmen and ward chairmen have given authority to implement stricter measures if active cases of the virus in their respective areas cross 200.
There are currently 753 local bodies in the country and of them, six are metropolitan cities, 11 sub-metropolitan cities, 276 municipalities and 460 rural municipalities. Similarly, there are 6,743 ward offices across the country.
According to a record of the MoHP Nepal COVID-19 update, the active cases of the virus in Nepal reached 7,254 on Tuesday.
The highest number of active case of the virus is presently seen in Kathmandu and Lalitpur of Bagmati Province and these two districts have active case of more than 500 per day, according to the update of the MoHP. Banke district of Lumbini Province has also crossed active cases of more than 500 per a day.
Ishwar Man Dangol, spokesperson of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, said that the Metropolis is aware and about to implement other necessary health protocols after the government on Monday issued several orders to manage the situation including the decision to shut schools in city areas.
"In coordination with Kathmandu District Administration, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City will introduce other precautionary measures to regulate the market and public places of Kathmandu by regularly monitoring these areas," Dangol said.
Meanwhile, a weeklong lockdown has been imposed in Banke beginning from April 22 as per the decision of the District COVID-19 Crisis Management Committee (DCCMC).
Assistant Chief District Officer Dirgha Raj Upadhyaya informed that Tuesday’s meeting of the DCCMC decided to impose a shutdown for seven days to break the chain of transmission of the coronavirus spreading rapidly in the district, according to our Nepalgunj correspondent.
“Nepalgunj and other areas are recording over 300 cases a day. This has forced us to impose the lockdown to avert a catastrophe,” he said.