To engage school kids during this lockdown, Republica is organizing a Daily Contest where we have been publishing the best submission everyday in Republica. Meanwhile, here are other three top articles along with the winning article sent to us for Topic 6:

Winner Topic 6

Name: Sudikshya Neupane
Grade: Nine
School: St. Mary’s School, Jawalakhel, Lalitpur

I hope corruption Year 2020 is just a meme

We have entered the 13th day of lockdown on Sunday and the total sample tests done to check for coronavirus till today is less than 1600. A total of 9 people are found to be infected so far as per public statement made by our government. There's a lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for our health workers around the country. The Ministry of Health (MOH) hasn’t taken adequate action to address the scarcity of basic equipment required by the people who are working in the frontline every day to combat the current crisis. This is scary considering the fact that now our country is in the second stage of Covid-19 transmission.

The preparation that our government is doing to deal with this global crisis is not enough. Cabinet meetings take place every now and then and the spokesperson tells the media that the government has taken different decisions to manage everything but in vain. As per the recent news published in a national daily, even the so called “Hub Hospitals” in our nation’s capital are yet to receive the basic PPEs. And due to the lack of the same, the patients who are having Covid-19 symptoms such as high fever are being returned by those hospitals. Moreover, most of the doctors and health workers as well hospital administration are reluctant to speak up against the poor management of the current crisis by our incompetent government due to fear of any action that the corrupt government officials might take against them.

The most important thing that our government must do immediately is: Tests, Tests & more Tests because the only way to find out quickly how much of our nation’s population are affected by the virus is by mass testing. Sadly, the same is not happening. It may be because the government has “Zero” preparations to tackle with the pandemic once it gets out of control. One thing that our politicians has 100 percent preparation is that of how to empty the state coffers by the means of corruption, corruption and more corruption in whatever decisions that they make, be it bringing the medical supplies from China at very higher costs or make commission even while rescuing the foreign nationals to their countries through chartered flights. Someone rightly posted a meme in social media recently that Visit Nepal Year 2020 is officially cancelled and Corruption Year 2020 is just getting started.

Our country has been in a lockdown since March 24, 2020 and the current lockdown period is highly likely to extend given the fact that we are in the second stage of transmission. But, lockdown is not only the answer to fully contain the disease. It is one of the many steps necessary to defeat the virus from spreading by stopping people’s movement. Therefore, our government is yet to take many needful actions like keeping people who have crossed borders in isolation and execute swift manhunt to find those who managed to escape the quarantine. Moreover, finding people who were in close contact with the ones that are found to be positive & scan them through the process of rapid testing is also extremely important because knowingly or unknowingly they will be helping the virus to spread across the country if not stopped timely.

On the whole, to wrap things up, it is a sad fact that our government has not done enough to contain the coronavirus. I do understand that the folks holding the top post are not competent enough because they are there by playing dirty politics and by taking our innocent voters for a ride. But, it is high time that they wake up and stop taking things for granted. Because, once Lord Pashupatinath gives up, it will be too late.

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Top 3

Name: Anubhav Kshetri
Grade: Nine
School: Kathmandu World School

Is our government doing enough to contain the spread of coronavirus?

“Covid-19” or also commonly known as corona virus has caused a global pandemic. It is a virus that spreads from person to person, mainly through close contact. The various symptoms of “Covid-19” include fever, shortness of breath, cough, etc.
The global pandemic declared by the World Health Organization has caused many countries worldwide to go into a lockdown. The countries currently in a lockdown include India, Italy, France, etc.The government of Nepal has also declared a lockdown. With the ninth case of corona virus in Nepal being confirmed recently the government has enforced a stricter lockdown. It has also been creating isolation wards for the patients who’ve tested positive. But still if the virus were to have a larger outbreak in Nepal, the country would suffer greatly. There aren’t enough isolation wards nor enough proper medication/treatment facilities and gear to sustain even a slightly larger scale outbreak than the one currently. This issue needs to be addressed immediately. The incoming human traffic should have been monitored properly; cases of coronavirus have been spread mainly through people coming in from foreign countries. They should be testing kits available to check for the infected people. The facilities in airports should have been better. There is a shortage of medical gear and medicines in the country.
Fortunately, the government is establishing isolation wards and has been trying to get the proper medicines and gear required for the treatment of the noble coronavirus. I believe the government should speed up these activities to withstand a larger outbreak in Nepal than this as there is no certainty.
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Name: Srija Bhandari
Grade: IX
School: The Excelsior School, Swoyambhu
                                           
Staying at home is the least we can do to help the government

Coronavirus pandemic is the ongoing pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019, which is caused by the coronavirus. It has affected different countries around the world. The virus has also spread in Nepal. The total number of cases till date is 9, where 1 person has already recovered and the other 8 are in isolation in normal condition.

Nepal is a developing country. If the virus rapidly spreads, the Nepal government will not be able to control it. Yes, the Nepal government has been trying to control the virus from spreading but is it enough? I guess not. The country has declared a lockdown in the whole country but people are sneaking out of their houses even without any emergency work. Is the government aware of it? The government should see if the people are staying at their houses time to time. The government should bring efficient ideas for how to control the virus from spreading.

The government should buy reliable equipment required to check if anyone has coronavirus or not. We are talking about human lives here. This is not a joke. Like we have heard, the same swab sample when tested in Pokhara showed positive but when tested in Kathmandu, it showed negative. This is the carelessness of the government. While the lives of the people are at hand, politicians are searching for a way to get commission and are saying yes to corruption. This is not good governance. This is not what the country needs right now.

Government should inform citizens about the ways to stay away from the virus and its symptoms. The government should provide the people sanitizers, masks and other required items. But instead, the government authorities themselves are involved in the black market of those goods. The government should establish well-managed isolation centers where the transmission of virus is not possible. The health workers should be provided with PPE. The health workers who don’t agree to treat the patients should be punished. And the lives of Nepalese should be assured.

Nepalese people should also spread positivity instead of believing in meaningless rumors. People should help the government in this global pandemic. Staying at home is the least we can do to help the government. Instead of badmouthing the government, we can be involved in different creative activities and learn different skills. We are all in this together. Lets keep calm and be aware of the virus.

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Name: Tejaswi Pant
Class: VI
School: The Excelsior School

Our government against coronavirus

The novel coronavirus or COVID-19 epidemic has enforced many countries to thrust lockdown. We are staying in our home and we expect the control of coronavirus from the government. But is our government really doing enough to contain the spread of coronavirus?

Let's start with the good side. We can remember the time when we were preparing for our final term exam. Talking about my school we had an examination from Chaitra 2. But when COVID-19 started to be more fatal then the ministry of education requested all the schools to complete the exams by  Chaitra 5. The SEE was also postponed. Here, we could see the first step taken by our government against COVID-19. After that, from Chaitra 10 the government announced lockdown. When everyone are inside their home there is less chance for the spread of coronavirus.At this moment, we could also have shortage of food,gas etc.But our government has provided us the necessary items we need. These are the good works done by our government.

But in some hospitals, doctors do not take the patients who have fever. They say that until they won't get Personal Protective Equipment they won't check the patients. One person can easily spread virus among many people. That's why, it is the duty of government to provide good quality P•Ps to the doctors. Government is also responsible for providing shelter and food to the poor ones.We can see the increment in the number of infected people day by day. It is the responsibility of the government to keep every person in quarantine who has got the symptoms of coronavirus and should test each and every person.

Even though there are some flaws made by the government, they are trying their best to ensure the safety of their citizens. Only criticizing the government will not solve this problem. We should have some faith over the government and support in every action they take.