Nepal PM warns of lockdown if COVID-19 cases surge

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday warned of possible lockdown in the coming days if COVID-19 cases surge in the country.

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday warned of possible lockdown in the coming days if COVID-19 cases surge in the country. While addressing the nation on the occasion of the Nepali New Year, KP Sharma Oli requested the people to follow COVID-19 protocols as second wave infections are increasing in the country.

"We should be protected from COVID-19; the COVID protocols and measures introduced by the Government should be followed and defend own self as well as others. If followed, we can keep our daily activities moving. There is a rumour that the government is planning to impose lockdown very soon; the government doesn't want to impose lockdown but we should take reference of other countries, mainly in Europe - the developed ones had to impose lockdown with the surge in cases in order to get protected from the first and second wave of infection. We want other measures to be adopted from now so that we don't have to impose lockdown through our awareness and keep the condition under our control," Prime Minister Oli said. Cases of COVID-19 have been increasing in recent days in Nepal by about 100 each day. Till Wednesday morning a total of 2,321,670 tests using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method had been carried out.

Nepal currently hosts active cases of 3,608 with the total number of infections standing at 280,984. A total of 274,318 people have recovered while 3,058 people have succumbed to the virus. Prime Minister Oli claimed that the government was able to make extraordinary achievements in the past year despite the adverse situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his address to the nation on Wednesday, Oli said that his government was able to raise hope among people at a time when there was huge pessimism. He also claimed that the government was able to maintain the rapid pace of development by building five kilometres of blacktopped road each day and 12 houses a day on average. He also announced increasing the elderly allowances from the new fiscal year.

"Talking about the railways, we have brought two rails in Janakpur and would operationalise it within this month," Oli said. He further said that the government's move to introduce a social security scheme was part of its achievement. He said that over six million people have already become part of this scheme. (ANI)

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