Health Ministry against continuing lockdown as it is

File: An empty road in Kathmandu on the first day of lockdown, on March 24, 2020.

Kathmandu, May 30

Two months and one week into the lockdown, the Ministry of Health and Population has concluded that the government should not continue it in the way it is implemented now.

The ministry, instead, wants to divide the country into different zones in terms of the level of risk and enforce different restriction measures accordingly.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had also hinted in his latest address to the nation a few days ago that the government would change the model of the lockdown. However, the ‘change’ has not materialised yet. The lockdown, if not extended, will expire coming Tuesday.

“We have already told the high-level committee on coronavirus control that the outbreak could not be controlled just by imposing the lockdown. Hopefully, they are also positive and will make a decision in a couple of days,” the ministry’s expert advisor, Khem Karki, says.

He claims the ministry had reached the final stage of preparation to relax the lockdown.