Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Nov. 9: The government has decided to not conduct rescue flights for Nepalis stranded because of COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision was taken by the COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre Directive Committee (CCMC) while setting the agenda for the upcoming Cabinet meeting.

A meeting of the Committee held on Sunday took the decision to recommend the Cabinet to discontinue the rescue flights.

The meeting also decided to provide health workers from the concerned ward offices to the people testing positive for coronavirus and staying in home isolation.

"The CCMC has decided to rescue those living abroad stranded being unable to fly by regular commercial flghts," Mahendra Guragain, coordinator of the CCMC and secretary at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, said.

CCMC’s directive committee took the decision after the number of regular international flights increased from October 1.

He informed that the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation had been recommended to make arrangement of airlifting those stranded Nepalis from regular international flights.

The meeting also decided to recommend opening the Jhulaghat checkpoint of Baitadi. There are currently 13 formal border points for making entry into Nepal.

The Committee further recommended the government to resume cable car, jungle safari and adventure tourism activities.

He said that the Council of Ministers has been recommended to allow the families of the employees of the diplomatic missions to come to Nepal. The Cabinet meeting held on May 18 had decided to rescue COVID-19-hit Nepalis from abroad.

As of Sunday evening, the government had rescued 136,393 Nepalis. Of them, the highest number of migrant workers were rescued from the United Arab Emirates at 40,230 people followed by 26,592 from Qatar.

Also, the government had rescued 18,783 persons from Malaysia, 18,760 from Saudi Arabia, 10,482 from Kuwait. The government had even rescued just two Nepalis, the lowest number, from various countries likes Armenia, Czech Republic, Tunisia, and Iran.

The government had begun its first rescue flight on June 5 from Myanmar by rescuing 26 Nepalis. Rather than sending a separate Nepali aircraft for the rescue, an aircraft of the Myanmar Air Force directly airlifted five Nepalis to Kathmandu. 

Published on: 9 November 2020 | The Rising Nepal