By Indira Aryal

Bhaktapur, Mar. 27: As the global fight against the COVID-19 continues, people in Bhaktapur have stayed indoors with the assurance from the local governments to support people in case of emergency.
Municipalities are busy conducting door-to-door awareness campaign against the virus and managing isolation wards in local hospitals.
On the third day of the lockdown, people were asked not to leave their homes unless there was urgency.
Deputy Mayor of Bhaktapur Municipality Rajani Joshi informed that the municipality had deployed a nurse and a volunteer to every household on the first and second day of the lockdown to inform people about the virus and sanitation.
The elderly and children are the most vulnerable to the virus so the municipality mobilsed social workers and nurses to each house asking them not to stay outdoors, Joshi said.
“The situation is normal today, still we are working through phone and social media about the possible risk,” she said. She added that when people had to go out for essential work, they should take permission from security personnel.
Chief District Officer of Bhaktapur district Hum Kala Pandey said that preventive measures were adopted in the district as the whole nation was in lockdown. The office has been alerting people to stay indoors and asked them not to move outside without emergency.
“We are holding meetings with secretaries from different ministries on a regular basis to discuss the preventive measures that people should follow,” she informed.
Deputy Mayor of Suryabinayak Municipality Juna Basnet informed that there were five people who arrived in the municipality from abroad, but they had been put under supervision keeping them in home quarantine.
All the hospitals, health posts and health centres are open in the municipality. “We all the representatives are also on duty all the time and if anyone needs our help, they can call us any time,” Basnet said.
There are few viral-flu patients who are receiving treatment in the health centres. The municipality has been coordinating with Bhaktapur Hospital in case anyone is infected with COVID-19, said Basnet.
Deputy Mayor of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality Anjana Devi Madhikarmi said that Nepal-Korea Friendship Hospital in the municipality was developed into a 100-bed isolation centre to keep the people infected with coronavirus if they are found in the municipality. The municipality has also distributed masks to citizens and special protective masks to health workers of the Korean Hospital, Madhikarmi said.
The situation is normal in the municipality, she said. Awareness campaign and other programmes launched targeting the people have been effective in enforcing the lockdown, according to Madhikarmi.
“If we find anyone violating the rule, they will be punished,” she informed.
However, some farmers are seen working in the fields early in the morning and even in the day time. But the situation is normal and there is no movement of the people unless it’s important.
After the government announced the lockdown and asked people to stay indoors, people working on daily wages in the garment factories are facing a hard time.
Kiran Tamang of Sindhupalchwok, who was working in a garment factory at Thimi, said it was hard for them to stay inside in a single room without working. “We cannot get food to eat if we don’t work. We have collected some for a week, I don’t know what will happen if the lockdown prolongs,” he said.
There is no option but to abide by the government decree, he said.