Kathmandu: Nepal remains no longer in the high risk zone of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the country continues to be in the risk zone of the deadly Covid infection.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has very freshly removed Nepal from the high risk zone but yet has kept Nepal in the “risk zone”, reports a news carried by Nepal’s People’s Review Weekly dated April 25/2020.

This means the country is not completely safe yet.
The WHO fresh assessment was based on efforts Nepal took in the past for the prevention and containment of the deadly virus.
According to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health and Population, Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, Nepal was earlier assessed as the highly vulnerable country in view of the COVID-19 due to the sudden eruption of Corona virus in its northern neighbor (China’s Wuhan region to be more specific) and open borders with the southern neighbor.

The US President and many other world leaders believe that the Corona-19 pandemic originated from Wuhan in China.

For the Nepali people, the southern neighbor India, is more dangerous than the Corona virus.

This is the experienced experience of the Nepali people since the early days of the 1950s.
The India’s minority Muslims apparently have sneaked into Nepal for fear of being persecuted by the Hindu fundamentalist regime in India.
The Indian Prime Minister Nehru, to recall, in order to twist the Nepali arms kept deliberately the Nepal-India borders open.

Because of the open border with India, thousands of Covid-19 patients have arrived Nepal who have in effect been the source of origin for the spread of the Corona Virus among the population in Nepal.

The infected patients from India have reached into the interior parts as far as Udaya Pur of Nepal, available media report suggests.
However, Nepal is now removed from the high risk list based on measures it applied in the prevention, control and treatment of the virus.

But yet the lock down has been extended for a week or so.
The first case of the Covid 19 Nepal was reported on 24 January 2020 in Kathmandu. The patient showed mild symptoms and had been discharged a week earlier with instructions to self-quarantine at home; he was subsequently confirmed to have completely recovered. Between January and March, Nepal took steps to prevent a widespread outbreak of the disease, while preparing for it by procuring essential supplies, equipment and medicine, upgrading health infrastructure, training medical personnel, and spreading public awareness.

The second case was confirmed on 23 March 2020 in Kathmandu. As of 17 April 2020, 28 additional cases have been confirmed, one each in Rautahat and Kanchanpur, two each in Baglung and Chitwan, three each in Parsa and Kathmandu, four in Kailali and 12 in Udayapur district.

13 of the cases involved people who had recently returned from abroad, and 15 of them were Indian nationals residing in Nepal; the first case of local transmission was confirmed on 4 April in a 34-year-old woman from Kailali.

A second complete recovery was confirmed on 18 April, bringing the number of active cases to 28. As of the 19th April, 4 patients in total have recovered. A country-wide lockdown came into effect on 24 March and is still i9n force. (Source: Wikipedia).

Similarly, the first case of the 2019-20 Covid-19 pandemic in India was reported on 30 January 2020, originating from China. As of 26 April 2020, the Ministry of Health and family welfare have confirmed a total of 26,917 cases, 5,914 recoveries (including 1 migration) and 826 deaths in the country.[ Experts suggest the number of infections could be much higher as India’s testing rates are among the lowest in the world. The infection rate of COVID-19 in India is reported to be 1.

7, significantly lower than in the worst affected countries (Source: Wikipedia).