Workers in Nepal walk back to homes amid COVID-19 lockdown

Rajendra Diyar, a migrant travelled to Hakim Chowk in Bharatpur, Chitwan with his six-year-old daughter and wife amid lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.

As the lockdown was extended for the third week, it became hard for Diyar to earn bread for his family in the town of Hetauda where he runs a small garage.

Diyar told ANI, "We faced a lot of problems, the shop is closed. I run a garage, not a grocery shop, so had to shut it down. We started from Niyarpani requesting the local police station there, now we will walk down to another police station and again request for a lift."

He along with his wife and daughter had started off to Nawalparasi from Hetauda taking a lift from a truck and then started on foot.

Nationwide-lockdown imposed since March 24 has compelled many families like that of Diyar to head towards their homes on foot as the situation is turning grim for workers day by day.

He added, "There was no business at all but also we stayed there with the expectation that lockdown would end on Tuesday, but as it got extended we thought of walking back to home rather than staying there."

Nepal which has 8 active cases of COVID-19 out of which one of local transmission, the government decided on to impose lockdown for an additional two weeks taking the number of days to 21 in total.

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in his address to the nation has warned that coming two weeks to be critical which also has increased fear of lockdown extension forcing people to walk on foot despite the obstacles.

Oli led administration imposed the lockdown in the Himalayan nation after the second case was confirmed in a foreign returnee on March 23. The number of positive cases of COVID-19 till Thursday stands at 9 as more positive cases were reported in intervals of time.

Since Saturday, Nepal has reported zero new positive cases of COVID-19 and already have started rapid testing in three districts namely Kailali, Kanchanpur and Baglung district.