By Ajita Rijal
Kathamandu, Dec. 3: The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has said that the services, businesses and works that the government has not yet permitted to reopen, and restricted operation since the prohibition order was first put in place after the outbreak of the pandemic should be extended for another 15 days.
Dr. Jageshwor Gautam, MoHP Spokesperson, shared at today’s press briefing that the prohibitory order would be continued and should be implemented fully until a new decision is taken, by reviewing the risk factor and condition over the next 15 days.
He requested everyone to strictly adhere to the restriction rule as well as continue to follow all the safety standards.
“Keeping in view the infection trend, operation of cinema halls, night-life-based businesses are not to be opened yet, while seminars, conferences, and events that may attract large gatherings and where public health protocols could be flouted as well as protest rallies, sit-ins are not to be organised, so are still prohibited,” informed Dr. Gautam.
He requested the services that are not permitted to open yet, to strictly adhere to the direction and close for next 15 days.
In case of schools, Dr. Gautam informed that discussions were being held regarding the possibility of reopening them after Mangsir (mid-December) by implementing all public health protocols and standards and
only at locations with
fewer students. For this, in coordination with Department of Health Services, a letter will be sent to the CCMC by the Ministry, he informed.
1,490 new cases and 1,567 new recoveries
Nepal’s active COVID-19 case count currently stands at 16,547. The official national COVID-19 cases tally has climbed to 236,246 with 1,490 additional cases reported on Wednesday. Of the total cases detected today, 565 are females while 925 are males.
Of the new cases in the last 24 hours, 723 cases were from Kathmandu Valley of which the majority of 531 were from Kathmandu while Lalitpur and Bhaktapur reported 134 and 58 cases respectively. The Kathmandu district records the highest number of active cases of COVID-19 so far.
Likewise, 1,567 people who were earlier infected with the virus are reported to have recovered in the past 24 hours, according to the latest update provided by the Ministry of Health and Population.
So far, 218,161 individuals have recovered from the COVID-19. The recovery rate stands at 92.3 per cent as of today.
Meanwhile, Nepal reported nine more COVID-19 related deaths taking the total death toll to 1,538 on Wednesday.
According to the MoHP, 8,300 PCR tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. With this, 1,754,630 PCR tests have been carried out, as per the latest update.