By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, June 7: The government is coming up with a roadmap to ease the lockdown restriction in a phase-wise manner. However, the decision to lift the lockdown is yet to be made.
A High-Level Coordination Committee for Prevention and Control of COVID-19 led by Deputy Prime Minister Ishwar Pokhrel has already prepared a draft of the action plan to open businesses and essential services on a phase-wise basis, said Narayan Bidari, Secretary at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers said on Saturday.
Assessment of the action plan is underway, he said.
A meeting of the committee today had a brief discussion over the draft, he said.
The high-level committee has been discussing various modalities of lockdown, said Bidari. The final decision would be made at the earliest, he added.
He said the committee would come up with a modality to reopen the industries, factories, development works, banks, health and other essential facilities by strictly following health and security protocols issued by the Health Ministry and Home Ministry.
Following mounting pressure from all sides to seek alternative to the prolonged lockdown, the government has been working on a roadmap to ease people’s life for the past few days.
Amid the pressure, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday invited two dozen sectoral experts, including economists, doctors, public health and social activists to seek suggestions on the future steps to combat the COVID crisis.
Earlier, a Cabinet meeting on last Saturday extended the ongoing lockdown for the sixth time, until June 14 amid rising number of COVID-19 cases. The Cabinet has also directed the Committee to change the modality of the lockdown.