Nationwide lockdown extended till April 15

KATHMANDU, 7^TH April 2020: The Government of Nepal decided nationwide lockdown to extend till April 15.

The lockdown has been extended in light of the three new cases of Covid-19 identified on Saturday and the rising number of cases in neighboring country India.

Amid growing fears of the spread of the coronavirus, the government on Monday decided to extend the ongoing nationwide lockdown until April 15 with assigning ministers to coordinate preventive measures with all provinces

“The Cabinet meeting decided to extend the lockdown until April 15 midnight as more Covid-19 cases have been reported as a positive test.”

The decision to extend the lockdown follows three more cases of Covid-19, including one local transmission, on Saturday in Kailali and Kanchanpur.

On Saturday that three patients—a 21-year-old man from Kailali who had returned from Mumbai, a 41-year-old man from Kanchanpur who returned from Uttarakhand, India and a 34-year-old woman from Kailali, a relative of a person who had earlier tested positive for the disease—tested positive for Covid-19.

The Covid-19 tally in Nepal so far till now has reached nine.

Though the government on Saturday evening had decided to conduct Covid-19 tests on a large scale in Kailali, Kanchanpur and Baglung, the rapid diagnostic test kits that were to be used in the mass tests have yet to be tested for efficacy.

Among the nine Covid-19 cases reported so far, two more are from Baglung distric—women, one 19-year-old and another 59-year-old.

If the lockdown is not extended further after April 15, it will likely be lifted simultaneously with India, which was started from March 25 has enforced a 21-day lockdown. India’s lockdown ends on April 15.

The major reason to extend the lockdown was taken in light of the new cases in Nepal and the rising number of Covid-19 cases in India. The government does not want to take any chances, as more people could enter Nepal through the porous border if the lockdown is lifted, which is only the idea to precaution of COVID-19.

As data of Monday, as many as 111 people had died and 3,851 active cases of Covid-19 in India, according to the Indian Health Ministry.