Kathmandu, Oct. 11
COVID-19 pandemic had claimed life of additional
17 Nepali nationals abroad in the past one week.
Of them, 16 were from the Saudi Arabia and
one from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
With this, the total death of Nepalis
caused by coronavirus in foreign countries has reached 281 in the past nine
months. Nepalis in 18 different countries have succumbed to the virus, said the
Non-Resident Nepali Association's Health Committee Coordinator Dr. Sanjib
Sapkota.
Likewise, virus infection among the Nepali
nationals has increased in Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, India, Oman, Qatar
and Saudi Arabia in the last week.
The NRNA informed that 40,735 Nepalis in 42
countries abroad were infected with the virus by Saturday evening while 89 per
cent – 36,673 individuals – have recovered from the disease.
Since the virus has claimed 636 lives of
people in Nepal, the total death of Nepalis has reached 917.
Meanwhile, leaders have criticised the
government's indifference to the pandemic.
Speaking at the second Knowledge
Convention, they blamed the government's inaction for the increment of the
contagion.
Former Minister for Education and leader of
the ruling Nepal Communist Party Dr. Gangalal Tuladhar commented that the
government preparations had reached ground zero.
"There was no effective plan for the
preparedness and check the spread of the virus. The government has no resource,
it’s hopeless," he said.
According to him, there was no effective
cooperation and coordination even among the different levels of governments
although disaster management was the common right of all of them.
He urged the government to create a
permanent structure to fight the natural disasters and pandemics.
Leader of Nepali Congress Gagan Thapa said
that the government had missed the opportunity to mobilise the external resources
during the pandemic.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 12 October 2020.
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