COVID-19 infection rate doubled among children below 18 years of age.

KATHMANDU, April 9: The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has recommended the COVID-19 Crisis Management Committee (CCMC) to take an immediate decision to stop ongoing physical classes in schools and colleges as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19.

According to Deputy Spokesperson at the MoHP Dr Sameer Kumar Adhikari, the ministry has already recommended CCMC to suspend the physical classes in order to curb further spread of the contagious variants of COVID-19.

Officials at the MoHP said the COVID-19 infection rate in children below the age of 18 has doubled lately. Earlier, the infection rate was seven percent among the children below 18 years of age. This has now risen to 16 percent, according to Dr Adhikari.

The schools and colleges had resumed the physical classes after a hiatus of 10 months from January due to the lockdown imposed to curb the COVID-19 infections by the government. There are fears of further spread of COVID-19 as Nepal on Thursday reported 332 COVID-19 cases.

The fear of the spread of COVID-19 has increased further as the neighboring country, India, has seen a sharp spike in the number of COVID-19 cases lately, with a total of 131,968 new cases recorded on Thursday alone. Nepal and India share an open border regime that allows people to cross each other’s border without any restrictions.

 
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