● Till date (17 April 2020)，30 cases are confirmed from 8 district of Nepal. Among these 13 cases are found in the people coming from aboard and 17 cases are believed transmitted internally. Out of 30, 15 are Nepali citizen and 15 are Indian people. Among 30, one is recovered and discharged from hospital and 29 are under treatment.
● Compared to other South Asian countries, the spread of COVID-19, Nepal has been relatively modest to date and fortunately, the effects have not been devastating yet, although it could surge in the days ahead if adequate preventive and corrective measures are not taken.
2. Government's Initiation to Combat COVID-19
● To combat COVID-19, the government of Nepal formed a high-level coordination committee under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister along with other stake holder ministries.
● This high-level committee after analyzing situation take the action needed for the county.
● COVID-19 Hub hospital, designated hospitals, and laboratories have been set up and expanded in the different part of the country.
● Public schools, colleges, and other public spaces are converted to temporary quarantine. Dedicated call centers including experts service, mobile apps are made publicize where an individual can get advice or check themselves if they suspect the case of COVID-19
● To mitigate the epidemic the country is following the six-T strategy Travel Restriction, Testing, Tracing, Tracking, Treatment and Together for the prevention and containment of COVID-19.
3. Effects in Nepalese Economy
● The country achieved economic growth of 7 percent for the last three years, with an official target of 8 percent in 2020, but the global pandemic shock looks to disrupt Nepal's plans.
● The Country's economy is dependent on agriculture, remittance, tourism and other middle scale industries. This sector already get affected, which in turn effecting the whole economy of Nepal.
● Businesses have already either slowed down or stalled altogether rendering many jobless people within the country.
● In addition, more than 4 million Nepali people are working in the Gulf and middle East and 1 million in India. Due to the COVID-19 some of these people already get adversely effected or out the job. This hindered the economy as well as job market in Nepal.
● Nepal is yet to make the announcement of plans to see how it works on economic recovery and how it will approach multilateral and bilateral agencies for long-term support through investments, grants and loans to handle this major crisis. Kathmandu has instead opted to take short-term approaches.
4. Lesson Learned
● Nepal is in touch with expert of China and they are learning the Chinese experiences in the battle of COVID-19.
● The practices of South Korea, Japan and Germany are also praiseworthy in containing the disease from further spreading, which Nepal can learn.
● Therefore, experts are suggesting the government to sit for video conferencing with their counterparts in China, South Korea, Japan and Germany to be familiar with global practice and with India regularly to share own experiences and make a joint plan and program.
● Experts are suggesting make a short term, midterm and long-term strategy and plans to revive economical activities; otherwise there may be devastating condition in the future rather than COVID-19.
5. Major Challenges
● Lack of enough testing kits, reagents, equipments, the personal protective equipment (PPE) gears for the health workers and satellite hospitals which can be used in anytime anywhere is the major challenge which may lack the country in the battle of COVID-19.
● Poor infrastructure, weak health care system, food supply, lack of previous experiences and complex topography to battle with such a big epidemic is also the major concern of our country.
● High increase rate over India and particularly to the sates boarding with Nepal will be one of the biggest problems for Nepal. Lack of data on migrant workers mainly from India due to open boarder is another challenge in the battle of COVID-19 in Nepal.
● Nepal is heavily dependent on India for essential supplies, including medicines. If lockdown continuous in India results in the interruption of supply chains, Nepal will obviously face difficulties.
● If the situation continues along with economy, it will affect academic calendar and research activities of the schools/universities and research institutes.
Acknowledgement: This report is submitted by Dr. Binod Dawadi from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
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