Constructive suggestions to contain virus welcome: PM

Kathmandu, Aug. 4

Experts have suggested the government to strictly implement the provisions of wearing masks and maintaining social distance. They also asked to expand the tests and quarantine all the people returning from foreign countries.

Some of them recommended for strict lockdown for 2 weeks while others suggested implementing lockdown only at the high-risk zones.

In a meeting with the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at his residence in Baluwatar on Tuesday, they said that the information about the pandemic should be disseminated in a way that it lessens fear and increases awareness among people.

They also asked the government not to hurry towards opening the long-distance transportation and education sector.

Since there is no indication that the risk would be significantly minimised in the near future, economic activities should be continued with strict adherence to the health and safety measures, they suggested.

PM Oli indicated that some reforms were needed in the present style of doing business.

In the wake of resurgence of the coronavirus infection following the lifting of lockdown, the PM had invited the experts to assess the status of COVID-19 in the country, steps taken by the government in preventing, containing and treating the patients, and taking further steps to save lives and the economy.

The country has witnessed a significant increase in the number of coronavirus infections in the recent days with Biratnagar, Janakpur, Birgunj and Kathmandu witnessing an abrupt surge.

He said that the pandemic was a crisis that needed endeavours from every sector of the society to tackle it effectively. “The government alone cannot do much. Every citizen is a soldier in the fight against the coronavirus crisis. Therefore, there should be enhanced awareness about the pandemic among the people,” he said, according to the PM’s secretariat.

However, he expressed discontent over the trend of using the pandemic and national crisis as an opportunity for the activities against the government and said that such practice should be changed.

“The pandemic must not be used as an excuse to protest against the government; instead we must fight against the crisis together,” he said. “There are protests against the government for every decision. Sometimes, they demonstrate against the government demanding for the lockdown and later the same people criticise the government move to lift the restriction. Social discipline helps in defeating the virus; it must not be taken as an opportunity to launch a protest,” he added.

According to PM Oli, the country was severely short of health human resource, instruments, structures and other facilities but there were efforts to take effective steps against the pandemic. It was not the implementation of strategy against the crisis but the lack of proper infrastructure and facilities. “We have achieved better success in creating the much needed health infrastructure even in comparison to the developed countries,” he said.

The Prime Minister stated that the discontent and rage in people is natural but one should be cautious about the people who criticised the good deed of the government just because they follow a different ideology or belong to another political party.

“General criticism is welcome but the culture to criticise every move of the government would not help. The protest will have moral value when one criticises the wrong decisions and activities of the government and appreciates the good ones,” he said.

“Healthy criticism is useful for the government and it pays due attention to it but this is unfortunate that some media and individuals are trying to harm the greater unity in the country and among the people during the time of this global crisis,” he added.

This is the activity intended to discourage the good works of the government and other agencies said PM Oli.

“We have natural disasters like floods and landslides in the meantime and security personnel, civil society, political parties and citizens are contributing to the rescue, relief and rehabilitation of the victims,” he said.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, spokesperson of the government, Minister for Finance, and Communication and Information Technology Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada said that instead of implementing restriction on movement and economic activities across the country, the government was opting for ‘zoning’ the risky areas and implementing lockdown in those selected locations.

“So the right to decision is given to the local bodies. Some cities have announced lockdown to trace contacts after number of cases have increased,” he said.

Dr. Khatiwada said that since most people were cured and the deaths were linked to many other diseases as well, everyone must have high-confidence about controlling the disease.

In regard to running schools and colleges, the Cabinet and COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre will have further discussions before reaching any decision, he said.

The PM had sought suggestions from the ministers, political leaders, including Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress and Mahantha Thakur of Janata Samajwadi Party, and experts of health sector and economy.

Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office Mahendra Guragain updated that the country now has medical labs with a capacity to conduct 18,000 PCR tests. Such tests were conducted in 400,000 people so far.

The government had announced lockdown from March 24 halting most of the economic and social activities to save the lives of people. The restrictions were partially lifted after three months and fully after four months about three weeks ago.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 5 August 2020.