Review Nepal
Kathmandu, Nepal, March 3, 2020: World Health Organization (WHO) has said that Nepal is at a very high risk of the spreading coronavirus, which is named as COVID-19. As the deadly decease has emerged as a global health epidemic, Nepal government has also adopted few precautionary measures.
The government has on Monday announced suspension of visa on arrival for citizens of China, Japan, South Korea, Iran and Italy from March 7 to March 31 so as to prevent the spreading coronavirus.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) took the decision in consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The decision is made following the suggestion of the high-level government task-force formed to prevent the outbreak of coronavirus.
As Nepal is the close neighbor of China, the epicenter of the coronavirus, the government should have adopted precautionary measure by setting up the screening facilities in the entire air and land route shared between the two countries.
Likewise, the government has deferred the international tourism promotional activities planned as a part of Visit Nepal Year-2020 due to the coronavirus epidemic. The cabinet meeting held on Sunday decided to postpone the Visit Nepal Year 2020 campaign for a time being. However, the Ministry of tourism and civil aviation, the responsible state agencies for the Visit Nepal Year 2020, has not made official decision yet to this effect.
Likewise, the much more hyped Sagarmatha Sambaad, a global dialogue event that it is planning to host every two years and scheduled now to be held in Kathmandu from April 2 to 4, has also been postponed by the government owing to the global threat of novel coronavirus.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pradeep Gyawali announced about the postponement of the campaign amid a press conference on Monday.
Similarly, the Supreme Court (SC), the apex court of the country, has directed the government to work seriously to prevent the spreading of the new coronavirus. The SC has also suggested the government and its responsible agencies even suspend international flights from various virus affected countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Baharain and Iran.
Responding to the public interest litigation filed by advocate Purna Rajbanshi, who had moved to the SC seeking intervention by the apex court, a single bench of Justice Tej Bahadur KC issued the directive in the name of the government authorities like, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Health and Population, the Department of Health and Sukraraj Tropical Hospital, Teku and others.
The SC has also directed the authorities to prevent Nepalese citizens and foreign nationals from entering Nepal directly or in transit from countries already affected by the virus.
Similarly, the main opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) has also urged the government to take effective precautionary measures to prevent the coronavirus outbreak to the country.
Issuing a 14-point public appeal during the press conference on Monday, the NC spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma urged the government to adopt the precautionary measures to prevent the coronavirus outbreak.
