Author: Himalaya Post

The government has decided to suspend on-arrival visa for some more countries after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic. “In the beginning, government had suspended the on-arrival visa to five countries, which is now extended in view of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Dr Yubraj Khatiwada. The meeting of the high level coordination committee to control the outbreak of deadly COVID-19 held on Thursday made such decision. He however did not share information which countries were in the additional list to not get on-arrival visa. “Information will be flowed from one-door system. The committee secretariat shared official decisions,” he said, making it clear that the air flights were not cancelled. Earlier, the government had suspended the on-arrival visa to the people from China, Iran, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, South Korea and Japan. The high level committee meeting held at Prime Minister’s Office discussed thoroughly on Nepal’s preparedness to stay safe from the pandemic. High level of alertness will be maintained, Minister Khatiwada added. As India said only some border points will be open for movement, the government here will follow the suit. For its implementation, the Home Ministry and Foreign Ministry are assigned the responsibility. As part of preparedness measures, the meeting has decided to additionally set up quarantine zones and isolation wards and increase supply of equipment and test...

Bhaktapur municipality has carried out a market monitoring acting on complaints that some pharmacies in the district have created artificial shortage of medicines, face masks and sanitizers amidst coronavirus fear. During the monitoring, medicines for blood pressure and diabetes are found to be in short supply as a result of the infection panic, said Raj Krishna Gora, who led the Bhaktapur municipality monitoring committee. The checking took place at various pharmacies at Jagati and Chyamhasingh. Nawadurga pharmacy during the checking was found to have had some date-expired medicines and it was directed to dispose of them, said the committee’s member Ram Krishna Prajapati. Similarly, some pharmacies were also found to be running without licence and some have yet to renew their licence, he said, adding that the monitoring team directed the pharmacies not to sell medicines more than required and keep billing...