Amid Border Dispute, Nepal Blames India for COVID-19 Spread!

Nepal and India are at odds again! However, this time it is over ‘coronavirus spread’.

Nepali PM KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday once again blamed India for the rise of coronavirus infection cases in the country. 

“Over 85% of coronavirus patients in Nepal are India-returnees. With the start of the movement of people from India, the number of coronavirus cases doubled in just one month in Nepal,” said PM Oli while addressing the parliament. 

He exclaimed that people coming from India through illegal channels without proper testing are responsible for spreading the coronavirus.

According to him, only 7,400 Nepalis returned from India in April-May. However, the inflow increased to 222,000 in May-June. He further added that every day 7,000 to 8,000 people are coming from India.

“As a large number of people returned from India, which was beyond our expectation, we could not manage them well,” said PM Oli.

Oli’s controversial statement came amid the escalating tensions between the two countries over the introduction of a ‘Constitutional Amendment Bill’ in the Nepali Parliament to include the disputed territories in the new political map.

Earlier on May 20, the Nepali Government has released a new political map claiming Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areas under its territory.

So far, Nepal has recorded 4,364 COVID-19 positive cases and 15 death cases. Currently, there are 3,675 active cases and 674 recoveries. 

With the sudden surge in coronavirus cases, the Nepali Government is facing criticism from various quarters over its response to the pandemic.

Critics exclaim that despite over two-months of lockdown, the coronavirus infection cases are increasing rapidly across the country. 

Responding to the critics, PM Oli said that the Nepali Government had implemented “effective” measures to contain the coronavirus spread. 

ALSO READ: Nepal plans to relax lockdown, restart economy

According to the PM, the notable measures include:

• Enhanced health facility to test 5,000 samples per day
• Allocated 45 dedicated hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients
• Deployed 3,000 health workers to collect swabs at local levels
• Deployed 3,200 health workers for contract tracing 
• Created 3,767 quarantine facilities to accommodate around 2,35,500 people
• Deployed over 11,000 health workers at quarantine centers
• Deployed 53,000 women health volunteers to spread awareness about coronavirus 

Stay Tuned to Nepali Sansar for Latest News Updates on COVID-19!