Nepal Braces for a Return to Locked-Down Life As Rise in Covid-19
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WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXVIII No. 169 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 35.3 C 14.7 C Wednesday, August 12, 2020 | 28-04-2077 Bhairahawa Jomsom Nepal braces for a return to locked-down life as rise in Covid-19 cases rings alarm bells Earlier date of August 17 for resumption of flights, long-distance bus travel, and start of school admissions has been pushed back by at least 15 days. SANGAM PRASAIN & TIKA R PRADHAN been pushed back by 15 days. KATHMANDU, AUG 11 Restaurants have been limited to takeaway services and all non-essen- Three weeks after lifting the lock- tial services like salons, shopping down, the federal government has malls, theatres must remain closed, given local administrations and gov- according to the new government ernments the authority to decide on directive. restrictions and lockdown measures Hotels were told to prepare for as Covid-19 cases continue to rise. guests as international flights had “The districts with more than 200 been earlier scheduled to start arriv- active cases of coronavirus can ing from August 17, but that too has impose necessary restrictions. We been pushed back by 15 days. have not imposed the nationwide lock- “After assessing the risk, the local down and the Cabinet has decided not administrations and local units can to,” said Finance and Information and take the necessary decisions,” said Communication Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada, who is also the govern- Khatiwada, making public the govern- ment spokesperson. ment’s decisions on Covid-19 contain- The government’s unplanned and ment on Tuesday. abrupt decision to cover up for its The restriction orders, however, shortcomings, however, has worried POST PHOTO: ANGAD DHAKAL could lead to similar situations as many. Firefighters douse a fire at a chemical factory in Madhyapur Thimi Municipality, Bhaktapur on Tuesday. lockdown at some places, according to “We [hoteliers] are increasingly Khatiwada. worried about the future. There are Other containment measures holes in the government’s Covid-19 include restrictions on domestic and response plan and we are becoming international passenger flights until the long-term sufferers,” said Binayak August 31. Shah, senior vice president of the Problems of Nepali theatre extend beyond the pandemic The government had announced on Hotel Association of Nepal. July 20 that flights, both domestic and “We were asked to resume business, international, would be allowed from and accordingly we started bookings Nepali theatre has been struggling financially for a long time. If the condition before the pandemic was poor, it’s now dire. August 17. and had started calling employees back Long distance buses will now be to work. Now we are in a dilemma. Our room rental in Kalopul. “I was getting artistic directors discussing the sys- allowed to ply from September 1. clients will not trust us anymore.” offers in plenty and was regularly temic problems that plague this small All educational institutions includ- A senior official at the Home doing what I loved to do.” Kathmandu-centric art industry of ing schools, colleges, tuition centres Ministry said that around 40 district Then Covid-19 struck. Sandeep was about 1,000 people. and training centres will remain administrations and local govern- in Bangalore for a workshop before Theatre in Kathmandu, over the closed. No date for their opening has ments have already imposed various the lockdown in both Nepal and India. past decade, has been booming--in been announced. kinds of restrictions, lockdowns and He had to cut short his trip and, like terms of the number of theatre hous- The government on July 20 had said curfews, and sealed border crossings many of his colleagues, was soon out es, the audience and the productions. schools could take admissions from since the lifting of the nationwide of work. All of his savings was spent Since the fall of the single private- August 17 but according to the lockdown on July 21. during the Bangalore tour and he ly-owned theatre house, Gurukul, in announcement on Tuesday this has >> Continued on page 2 didn’t want to get back to the family 2012, Kathmandu has seen as many as either, he said. seven theatre houses with their own The only option then was to take black boxes, either self-owned or rent- loans from his circle of friends, and ed--namely, Mandala, Shilpee, Theatre that’s how he has been getting by late- Mall, Kausi, Sarwanam, Theatre ly, sequestered in his room, smoking Village, Shailee, and Kunja. The cigarettes and jotting down drafts of expected new entrant to the scene, plays and film scripts. Purano Ghar, was under construction But not many actors in Kathmandu’s before the pandemic. POST FILE PHOTO theatre scene share Sandeep’s privi- >> Continued on page 2 There is no possibility of a return to theatres until people are safe to gather in a place. lege, if one could call it that. Many have returned to their TIMOTHY ARYAL earn enough to sustain himself. He homes in villages, and they may KATHMANDU, AUG 11 could perform in both Nepali and never come back at all, said Raj English-medium plays (whose remu- Shah, an actor-director with Five years ago, Sandeep Shrestha neration on an average tends to be Sarwanam Theatre. abandoned his family to focus on thea- slightly higher than the former’s). Like all sectors of the tre. His family wanted him to be a Sandeep, who is 32, would go on to society, the pandemic has software engineer but his passion was appear in 27 plays, and write and brought theatre to its knees. But in acting, directing and writing. He direct two in his eight-year-old career. it’s problems, theatre insiders built his network in Kathmandu’s His relationship with his family had say, extend well beyond the pan- small yet robust theatre scene. Soon, smoothened again. demic. he would be involved in new shows “I was on a roll,” Sandeep told me The leisure of the pandemic POST PHOTO: HEMANTA SHRESTHA almost on a monthly basis and would recently over video chat from his one- has led to theatre owners and Shops closed in Bhaktapur. Increasing curbs due to rising virus cases worry businesspeople. C M Y K WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020 | 02 NATIONAL Laboratories in Province 1 overwhelmed with increasing number of samples Delay in test results has not only caused distress but also risked community transmission of the disease, Covid-19 suspects and patients say. DEO NARAYAN SAH family susceptible to contracting the you need to get a PCR test,” Mehata MORANG, AUG 11 disease from them. added. “Those who have maintained “The health officials in the munici- physical distance with the infected do A 50-year-old man from Ward 11 in pality traced me through an infected not come under contact tracing. But Biratnagar had his swab sample col- individual. It took them five days to the local units are collecting swabs of lected for a Polymerase Chain give me my result,” said a coronavirus those people as well.” Reaction test by the metropolis’ health patient who is in his early sixties. According to him, the social officials on Saturday. The long wait for “Five days after they took my sample, development ministry is preparing to his test result is causing him much I found out that I had tested positive draft a guideline to systematise the distress, he says. for the virus. I put my family and collection of swab samples in the local “I am very worried about the test friends at risk of getting infected. Had bodies. result and the safety of my family,” he I known about the result earlier, I However, Kuikel from the Health said. “If I am carrying the virus, then would have been more careful in Unit of Biratnagar Municipality says I might have already infected my par- self-isolating.” that his office has been collecting ents, wife, children and even my Dr Suresh Mehata, chief at the swab samples for testing based on the POST PHOTO: SANJOG MANANDHAR neighbours.” Health Division of Social Development demand of the metropolis. Broken glass at the Tribhuvan University vice-chancellor’s office after Nepal Student Union members vandalised it, in Kirtipur on Tuesday. According to the health unit of Ministry in Province 1, believes that if “The risk of infection has become Biratnagar Metropolis, the city col- the local units prioritised contact trac- high in the province since the easing lected around 1,100 swab samples for ing instead of focusing on random of lockdown measures,” he said. “All PCR tests in the past week. swab collection, then the labs would local units in the province, including “We are yet to conduct tests on 400 be able to release the test results soon- our municipality, have been prioritis- specimens,” said Rajendra Kuikel, an er. “We have to prioritise PCR tests ing expansion of PCR tests.” Over 20,000 people booked for flouting officer at the health unit. based on contact tracing and of people As of Tuesday, the laboratories in It usually takes only a day for PCR with Covid-19 symptoms. But the local Province 1 have conducted a total of test reports to come but the PCR labo- units have been collecting swab 60,680 PCR tests. Among them, 1,563 ratories in Province 1 are over- samples of people who are not in need samples tested positive for the virus. mask and social distancing rules in Valley whelmed with the rising number of of a test right away,” he said.