Govt to issue new health protocol directive as Nepal braces for COVID-19 variant

KATHMANDU: The government is making preparations to issue a directive on health safety measures for the prevention and control of the second wave of coronavirus infection cases in the country.

A cabinet meeting held on Monday evening took a decision to this effect to curb the second wave of COVID-19 infection cases.

The meeting also dwelled on the proposal submitted by the COVID-19 Crisis Management Center (CCMC), informed Minister for Communication and Information Technology Parbat Gurung.

Minister Gurung further said that the meeting also decided to make an appeal to the people to strictly adopt the health safety measures to prevent the new variant of coronavirus from spreading further.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokharel, who is also the coordinator of the CCMC, informed that the government will make an appeal to the nation to adhere to the heath protocol determined by the government to stem the coronavirus spread.

The government has not decided to immediately shut down any sectors, added Deputy Prime Minister Pokharel.

According to Minister Gurung, the cabinet has approved the health safety standards prepared by the CCMC.

Even though the CCMC suggested closing the educational institutes in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the school operators disagreed to shut down schools in the meeting with the stakeholders held yesterday.

As many new cases of Covid-19 are being reported in the country lately, the detection of a new variant of the infection has caused a concern among the experts since the new variant seems to be more contagious.

The country witnessed a total of 496 new cases of coronavirus infection in the past 24 hours taking the total caseload in the country to 280,524 till date. The number of reported active cases in the country is 3,306 while recovery rate is over 97 per cent.

All the 3,306 infected ones are in isolation in various parts of the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Population. Likewise, altogether 3,053 people have succumbed to Covid-19 till date in the country, according to the Ministry.