‘Private hospitals denying COVID-19 treatment will be punished’

Kathmandu: The government has decided to provide service for the treatment of COVID-19 patients from the private hospitals as well.

Any other health facility in addition to the government and public ones will be obliged to provide treatment to COVID-19 patients in the wake of increasing cases of coronavirus infection in the country.

Government Spokesperson Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada on Friday shared this information as the decisions of the Cabinet meeting that took recently.

The Ministry of Health and Population is planning to treat the symptomatic patients from the teaching hospitals, private hospitals, cooperative hospitals, and community hospitals.

At the press conference, the Spokesperson further said anyone obstructing and non-cooperating with the government decision would be taken action as per the existing law.

“Hospitals are not allowed to run service as per their interest and benefit but for service to all. All sides’ cooperation is essential to implement this decision of the government,” he underscored. Similarly, the government will also augment the RTPCR tests.

The asymptomatic people willing to stay at home will be allowed for it but with guarantee of home isolation and abidance to health safety rule. Only those having COVID-19 symptoms will be taken to the dedicated hospital for treatment.

The Health Ministry will manage necessary ventilators, ICU, oxygen, medicine, medical equipment and human resources. The COVID-19 focused Cabinet meeting further decided to manage the 6,000-bed isolation in different hospitals, which would be increased as per the need.

Management to this regard would be done by the State governments in the places out of the Kathmandu Valley. Nepal Army will look after the security of isolations.

The Council of Ministers also decided to unveil the schedules for regular and rescue flights from September 1 to repatriate 500 Nepalis everyday from different countries.

Regular flights for repatriation

The regular flights would be made so that only Nepali diplomats from the host countries, officials and representatives of UNO, development partners and Nepali citizens allowed to return home from Malaysia, UAE, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, China, Australia, USA, Canada and EU member states would travel in the regular flights.

Dr Khatiwada said that regular passengers would not be allowed to bring from the countries where the PCR test is not accessible but Nepal’s diplomatic mission can charter the flights to repatriate Nepali migrants from the countries concerned.

Such passengers should submit their negative result within 72 hours upon their arrival, and the hotel booking for at least seven days should also be submitted.

The airlines companies would be booked if the protocols were not abided.

Likewise, the infected and non-infected passengers should not be repatriated in a single plane. Similarly, the Cabinet meeting also formed a committee led by Home Secretary for the provision and management of integrated quarantines in coordination with the local levels in the Kathmandu Valley.

The meeting has decided to control movement via international border, boarder areas, and from district to district. The concerned ministries are asked to disseminate information on precaution and update on the pandemic and daily activities to be done by the public in the critical hours.

Arrangement for victims of natural disasters

The meeting also extended condolences to the bereaved families of those killed in landslides and wished for the speedy recovery of the injured ones in the disasters.

According to Minister Khatiwada, a total of 250 people were killed in the landslides occurred in various parts of the country while a large number of people are still missing in the monsoon-caused disasters.

The government further decided to bear the cost of treatment to those who were injured in natural disasters and to provide Rs 200,000 as relief to the families of deceased in the disasters.

Mobile health camps will be organized in the disaster-hit areas for the prevention of any kind of pandemic.

Online teaching

While responding to the queries of media persons, Minister Khatiwada shared that the government was working out to incorporate the online teaching learning activities in the academic year.

Condolence to Rastrakavi

The meeting has also expressed grief over the demise of Rastrakavi laureate Madhav Prasad Ghimire and extended condolences to the bereaved families.