Is a prohibitory order solution to Covid-19?

By Our Reporter 

The second round of prohibitory order in the Kathmandu Valley is expiring on Thursday after three weeks.

The local administration restricted the Valley in a bid to control the spread of COVID-19. However, even after the enforcement of tougher lockdown, the cases continued to surge in the Valley and across the country. The country reported more than 900 new cases on daily basis with one-third of them in the Kathmandu Valley in the last fortnight. Hence, the restriction did not work at all to control the virus. Instead, record-high cases and deaths were reported during the restriction period. As of Tuesday, Nepal’s caseload reached 48,138 with 306 deaths.

As per the latest update, there are 14,868 active cases of COVID-19 of which, 8,053 are in institutional isolation and 6,815 are in home isolation.

Among the active COVID-19 patients, 144 are admitted at the ICU and 23 are receiving treatment with ventilator facility.

The business community has strongly opposed the prohibitory order and they demanded its lifting. They also met Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and asked him to allow them to open businesses by following safety measures.

However, the chief district officers of the valley want continuity to the restriction. Moreover, they have proposed deployment of Nepali Army at the entry points of the valley to control the arrival of people in Kathmandu from outside the valley. According to them, daily 2000 people are entering in the Valley, and they have been key agents for the increasing cases of COVID-19 in the valley.

Meanwhile, three Chief District Officers (CDOs) of the Kathmandu Valley Tuesday said the lockdown enforced in the Capital would get continuity by giving some conditional relaxations to begin some businesses and offices.

The three CDOs of the valley separately said there is no likelihood of calling off the lockdown completely.

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