No passenger from Nepal will be allowed to enter Bangladesh from Monday to limit the spread of the Covid-19,said official…reports Asian Lite News
The Bangladesh government has banned the entry of travellers from Nepal as its neighbouring countries, including India, were reeling from a deadly second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) made the announcement on Sunday saying no passenger from Nepal will be allowed to enter Bangladesh from Monday to limit the spread of the Covid-19, reports Xinhua news agency.
Bangladesh on Saturday detected its first cases of a highly infectious coronavirus variant first identified in India, weeks after it imposed a ban on the entry of travellers from the neighbouring country via land ports on April 25.
The air travel between the two countries was suspended from April 14 following a devastating rise in Covid-19 infections in India.
After weeks of suspension due to thepandemic, international flight operations to and from Bangladesh resumed in a limited scale on May 1.
According to government data, the infection rate of Nepal now stands high by 13.8 per cent as compared to earlier weeks…reports Asian Lite News
Nepal has recorded an all-time high of 7,211 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours as the Himalayan Nation has struggled to deal with the second wave of a pandemic that has taken the country by surprise.
According to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), a total of 17,770 samples were tested using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Antigen Test. Out of those tested in the last 24 hours, 7,211 were detected positive for coronavirus.
According to government data, the infection rate of Nepal now stands high by 13.8 per cent as compared to earlier weeks.”This shows that Nepal also falls under nations in the world with the high infection rate,” Dr Birajman Karmacharya, Director at Public Health and Community Program of Dhulikhel Hospital said.
Nepal
“Positivity ratio of those tested now stands at 37 per cent. While Karnali has the highest positivity ratio at 67.9, Lumbini has the ration of 61.3 percent. The ratio should have stayed lower than 5 percent,” Karmacharya added.
There are currently 48,711 active cases of COVID-19 across the country. Of them, 3,530 are in isolation centers and 45,181 are in home isolation. (ANI)
The decision was taken as Oli was increasingly facing non-cooperation from one section of his own Nepal Communist Party-Unified Marxist-Leninist…reports Asian Lite News
Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, who is facing a crisis inside his own party, is to seek a vote of confidence on May 10.
The decision was taken as Oli was increasingly facing non-cooperation from one section of his own Nepal Communist Party-Unified Marxist-Leninist and the Nepal Communist Party-Maoist Centre has threatened to pull out from the government.
A section of Oli’s own party led by former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is not happy with Oli, who is also the party Chairman, since the formation of this government some three years back, accusing him of working unilaterally as head of the government and the party.
In the midst of this confusion, the Prime Minister has decided to seek a vote of confidence and decided to summon the house on May 10 for the purpose, Agriculture and Livestock Minister, Padma Kumari Aryal told IANS.
If Oli fails to garner a majority, then either he will dissolve the house and declare the elections or will seek support from other parties to run the government for the remaining two years.
Oli vs Prachanda
The rift between Oli and Nepal widened after Oli dissolved the Parliament on December 10. However in February, Nepal’s Supreme Court reinstated the Parliament but relations between Oli and Nepal soured further after Oli suspended him and some other senior party leaders close to him for six months.
The Nepal faction is also creating parallel party structures after animosity grew with Oli. After facing non-cooperation from within the party, now the Prime Minister has decided to seek a vote of confidence, the minister said.
Out of 121 seats, Oli has support of 86 lawmakers while the Nepal faction holds sway over 35. It is not sure whether the Nepal faction will cross the floor against his own party’s chairman. But the Nepal faction has been crossing the floors in some provinces, so it is likely to cross the floor or abstain from the trust vote, said party leaders.
In the 271-member House of Representatives, the CPN-UML has 121 seats, the Nepali Congress 63, the CPN-Maoist Centre of former PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal 49, the Janata Samajbadi Party 34, and smaller parties four seats
The list of requirements includes oxygen, Remdesivir and intensive care unit beds….reports Asian Lite News
The Nepal government has sought assistance from India for the supply of oxygen, antiviral drugs and intensive care unit beds, as the countrys healthcare system is cracking under the pressure of the rising coronavirus caseload.
According to officials, a request to that effect was made to New Delhi by the Ministry of Health through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Nepali embassy in New Delhi has already started taking up the matter with concerned Indian government agencies, officials said.
“We have received a list of requirements from the government and have forwarded them to relevant (Indian) government agencies,” a senior Nepali diplomat at the Nepali embassy in Delhi told the Post over the phone.
The list of requirements includes oxygen, Remdesivir and intensive care unit beds, the Kathmandu Post reported on Saturday.
The request, however, has come at a time when India itself is struggling to contain the lethal second wave of the coronavirus, with the daily count of infections soaring over 300,000 and the number of daily deaths hitting a record 2,263.
Public health experts say the request to India at this time exposes the government’s lack of preparedness against the looming second wave about which they had consistently warned.
That the second wave of the coronavirus was going to strike was evident when India, after a decline in the number of infections, which many termed “miraculous”, started reporting a sudden resurgence of the virus. The daily count started to shoot up at an exponential rate. Concerns had grown in Nepal, but authorities by and large made no moves, while governance took a backseat as politicians, including Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, engaged in a bitter political fight.
Nepal too had seen a sudden decline in the number of cases after the daily count hit the highest ever on October 21 last year at 3,439. But from less than 100 new infections on March 12, the country on Thursday reported 2,365 new cases.
The Ministry of Health said on Friday the number of new cases in the past 24 hours hit 2,449, with five deaths.
Officials say the country’s health facilities are already overwhelmed, with hospitals running out of intensive care beds, oxygen and Remdesivir.
How remdesivir can save lives in nations with lower hospital capacity.
About a few weeks ago, when India decided to impose a ban on exports of Remdesivir, Nepali officials said that Nepal won’t be impacted much by the decision, and it was importing the antiviral drug from Bangladesh as well.
Public health experts, doctors and analysts say India is no doubt a friendly country but extending a begging bowl at a time when the neighbour itself is struggling to deal with one of the biggest humanitarian crises of its own just does not make sense.
“Why not procure some items like Remdesivir from Bangladesh, as it is manufactured there as well,” said Baburam Marasini, former director of the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division. “The government can purchase small oxygen concentrations also from East Asian countries like Thailand and Malaysia.”
As the coronavirus cases are swelling, there are concerns about hospitals running out of oxygen. Out of 185 hospitals across the country, only 26 have oxygen plants and not all of them are in operation.
As far as intensive care unit beds are concerned, their number currently stands at 1,486 throughout the country. The number of general beds which can be allocated for coronavirus patients stands at 18,917.
“Until now, as far as I understand, we have a fairly good stock of oxygen, but we might need more. However, there is a need to preserve what we have, as there are chances oxygen, which is in high demand in India, could be smuggled out.”
A health worker analyses samples of COVID-19 vaccines, developed by Chinese company Sinovac
A shipment of the Chinese Covid-19 vaccines developed by Chinese bio bio pharmaceuticalSinopharm was delivered to Nepal on March 29…reports Asian Lite News
The Nepal government has decided to administer the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine don Wednesday amid resurging cases of the novel coronavirus in the Himalayan country, an official of the Ministry of Health and Population said.
On March 29, a batch of the Chinese Covid-19 vaccines developed by Sinopharm was delivered to Nepal, reports Xinhua news agency.
“The Chinese vaccine will be administered to people starting from Wednesday,” Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson at the Health Ministry, told a press conference.
“Those involved in essential services, students studying in China under the Chinese government scholarship but are currently stuck in Nepal due to pandemic, Nepali students preparing to leave for China for the higher study and people involved in cross-border trade between Nepal and China will be inoculated with the Chinese vaccine.”
Nepal receives 800K doses of Covid vax from China(Twitter)
According to the Ministry, essential workers include the people who are working in postal and telephone services, water supply and distribution, hotels and restaurant, public transportation services, electricity supply, storage and transportation of consumer goods, sales and distribution of medicines and the health workers who had missed out in the first phase of the vaccination drive that began on January 27.
Gautam said the Chinese vaccines would be administered from designated hospitals in Kathmandu Valley.
Nepal reported 176 new Covid cases on Monday. In early March, the cases went down below 50 per day.
Nepal has so far inoculated over 1.7 million people in two phases, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.
Prime Minister Oli is in a difficult position inside his own party, Nepal Communist Party-UML, as Nepali Congress (NC) has decided to seek his resignation nd initiate the formation of a new government under its leadership, reports Asian Lite News
Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli who is in trouble inside his own party, is likely to face tougher days ahead as the primary opposition, Nepali Congress (NC) has decided to seek his resignation and initiate the formation of a new government under its leadership.
The decisions were taken at a Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting of the NC.
NC spokesperson Bishaw Prakash Sharma said the part has decided to seek Oli’s resignation as he has not taken any initiative of a way forward despite the House of Representatives, which he dissolved in December 2020, being restored.
Prime Minister Oli himself is in a difficult position inside his own party, Nepal Communist Party-UML.
A section of the party led by former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is forming parallel party structures within the UML after Oli suspended four senior leaders, including Nepal, for six months.
Oli accused Nepal and other leaders for being involved in anti-party activities and violating rules and norms.
After Oli dissolved the House on December 20, 2020, a section of party leaders upped the ante against the Prime Minister and sought his resignation.
On February 23, the Supreme Court of Nepal reinstated the House but Oli refused to step down.
The apex court on March 7 dropped another bombshell invoking the 2018 party merger between Oli’s UML and Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’s Nepal Communist Party-Maoist Center.
Nepal, who was earlier close with Prachanda, returned to his mother party but Oli refused to incorporate them for supporting Dahal when the party was united under the banner of Nepal Communist Party.
After Oli refused to welcome Nepal and his faction inside the old party, the Prime Minister’s party has once again landed in fresh trouble.
After the Supreme Court split the Nepal Communist Party into two, the UML and Maoist Center, now, the Prachanda-led Maoist Center is also preparing to withdraw support lent to Oli in 2018 before the party unification.
If Maoist Center withdrew its support, Oli’s party will automatically reduce to a minority government.
Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli
In that case, either Oli has to take a vote of confidence or face a no-confidence motion.
Nepali Congress’s decision to seek Oli’s resignation is a welcome step and time has come to remove Oli, former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai said on Saturday.
Time has come for other opposition parties to play their role, Bhattarai said, adding, today our foremost priority is to remove Oli.
Meanwhile, Oli said that he was also aware of what the opposition are doing.
“First withdraw your support to the government. Then I will resign,” he said, adding that this is not the first time that his resignation has been sought.
“I cannot resign to meet each and every demand.”
Meantime, the Nepali Congress’ decision to seek Oli’s resignation and unseat him, could create a new political equation in Nepal.
If three opposition parties, Nepali Congress, Maoist Center and Janata Samajbai Party come together, they will easily unseat Oli.
And party leaders have said that now time has come to expedite talks between the opposition to unseat Oli.
The refugeesfrom the Jhapa district were inocluated as part of the second phase of that rollout…reports Asian Lite News
Nepal has become the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to provide Covid-19 jabs to refugees through its national vaccination rollout.
According to the UN refugee agency in Kathmandu, Nepal started to inoculate the Covid vaccine to the Bhutanese refugees living in eastern part of the country from March 7.
The refugees at the settlement in the Jhapa district were vaccinated as part of the second phase of that rollout, which started on 7 March and targets people over the age of 65.
Nepal started receiving Bhutanese refugees mostly Nepali speaking Bhutanese from the 1990s and over 100,800 have crossed the border via India and started seeking asylum in eastern Nepal. After Bhutan refused to take them back, the UN refugee agency and some western countries started taking them under the third country settlement programme.
Under this plan that started from 2007, 100,000 Bhutanese refugees have resettled in various western counties like the USA, Australia, Canada and others and now, there are around 18,000 refugees living in Nepal. Now they have stopped taking the Bhutanese refugees as resettlement reaches its end in 2016.
The country kicked off its vaccination campaign on 27 January after the Indian government donated one million doses of Covishield, the India-produced version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. In the first phase, frontline health workers, sanitation workers, hygiene workers and security officials were vaccinated.
Local authorities, refugee leaders and security officials set up a temporary vaccination centre at the refugee settlement and as of 24 March, some 668 refugees above the age of 65 had received vaccinations against the virus across the country, according to the UN agency for refugees.
More refugees will be enrolled in the vaccination programme as the government receives additional supplies of vaccines, the agency said in a statement.
Nepal hosts nearly mostly Tibetans and Bhutanese refugees with arrival date in 1959 and in the early 1990s respectively.
Since the onset of the pandemic, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has been working closely with other UN agencies and government authorities to advocate for the inclusion of refugees in Covid-19 preparedness and response plans.
“The Government of Nepal has shown exemplary leadership for public health responses by including refugees in the national vaccination plans and rollout,” said Carolin Spannuth Verma, UNHCR’s Representative in Nepal.
To date, Nepal has reported 276,750 confirmed Covid cases and 3,027 deaths.
“The risk of Covid-19 is the same for all. It doesn’t matter if you are a refugee or not,” said Shrawan Kumar Timilsina, the Chief District Officer of Jhapa, in eastern Nepal where the country’s two refugee settlements are located. “Protecting the life of all people is our priority.”
Bhakti Prasad Baral, 83, fled Bhutan in 1992 and is now living in Beldangi settlement in Jhapa. He said that he felt “lucky” to get the vaccine.
“It was really difficult to endure what was going on because of the virus,” said the octogenarian, who works as a Hindu priest in his community. “I have no words to thank the Government of Nepal for paying attention to older persons like us.”
Nepal receives 800K doses of Covid vax from China(Twitter)
Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi handed over the vaccine shipment to Nepal’s Health Minister Hrydesh Tripathi at a function at the Tribhuvan International Airport….reports Asian Lite News
A day after the Nepal Army received 100,000 doses of Covid vaccine from their Indian counterparts as a goodwill gesture, 800,000 doses donated by China arrived in Kathmandu on Monday.
Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi handed over the vaccine shipment to Nepal’s Health Minister Hrydesh Tripathi at a function at the Tribhuvan International Airport.
On Sunday evening, the Nepal Army received 100,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccines, developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and locally manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
“100,000 doses of #MadeInIndia Covid-19 vaccine gifted by Indian Army to the Nepali Army were received at Tribhuvan Airport today,” the Embassy of India tweeted on Sunday evening.
The vaccine provided on Sunday will only be administered to the Nepalese Army personnel.
At a time when Nepal is struggling to continue its inoculation drive against Covid as cases have started to surge across the country, the Covishield vaccine will provide some relief, said officials.
Since India halted the export of Covid vaccine, Nepal was also hit hard by the temporary sanction.
The Chinese vaccine that Nepal has received is developed China’s Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co. Ltd, under Sinopharm.
Nepal has already granted emergency use authorization of the Sinopharm vaccine but the World Health Organization has not approved it.
Nepal had sent a flight os its national flag carrier to Beijing to transport the Chinese vaccine while India has been delivering the Covid vaccine by its own airplane.
Earlier, India provided 1 million doses of the vaccine to Nepal as a gift.
Later, Nepal procured another one million doses of Covid vaccine from Serum Institute at a discounted rate.
Nepal has amended the quarantine rule for foreign tourists to bring back tourism….reports Asian Lite News
Tourists flying into Nepal will no longer have to quarantine if they have a negative test result for Covid-19 upon arrival, officials said on Friday.
Previously, visitors were required to undergo a week-long quarantine at their hotel and wait until the fifth day for a Covid-19 test, reports dpa news agency.
“Now, they can have tests as soon as they arrive here,” Prem Subedi, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA), said in a statement.
He said that those who test negative for the virus can continue their trips; otherwise, if they test positive, they have to remain at their hotel until recovery.
Before flying to Nepal, visitors are still required to show proof of negative results in a coronavirus test conducted within 72 hours before boarding the flight, or proof that they have received a Covid-19 vaccine.
The new rules seek to attract more visitors during the spring season, especially trekkers and climbers going to some of the world’s highest peaks, including Mount Everest.
Bangladesh is hosting the 10-day special programme to celebrate the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and also 50 years of the country’s independence…reports Asian Lite News
Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Monday left for Bangladesh on a two-day state visit, during which she will attend a special programme in Dhaka and meet others senior leaders from the region.
Bangladesh is hosting the 10-day special programme to celebrate the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and also 50 years of the country’s independence. The celebrations began on March 17.
According to Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bhandari will attend the celebrations in Dhaka and on the occasion she deliver a statement on the theme, “Nepal-Bangladesh Relations and Bangabandhu’s Birth Centenary”.
Bidhya Devi Bhandari(Wikipedia)
She will also hold talks her Bangladeshi counterpart Abdul Hamid at Bangabhaban, the Presidential Palace in the capital city.
Nepal’s Minister for Communications and Information Technology Parbat Gurung, also the government spokesperson, said the countries will sign three Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs).
An array of subjects like cultural relations, tourism sector, and pesticides on agriculture and livestock between Nepal and Bangladesh would be discussed, he added.
Likewise, linking Nepal with ports in Bangladesh through railway and transportation would also be on Bhandari’s agency.
“There is the hope that the subject of initiatives taken by Bangladesh on purchasing power from Nepal will be discussed,” Gurung said.
The government of Bangladesh has provided Nepal transit facility through the Kakadbhitta-Phulbari-Banglabandh via India roadway as well as at the Chittagong and Mongla seaports.
It has also made available an additional �rail corridor’ for the operation of a freight train from Rohanpur-Singhabad to Nepal via India, and it has opened the way for the Himalayan nation to use the Mongla harbour as an option to the Kolkata port.
Since Mongla port is nearer to Kolkata, it will help expand bilateral trade at a comparatively lesser cost for Nepal.
