These are some of the best stories from The Kathmandu Post (March 9, 2020). Women wearing masks to prevent contracting the coronavirus take a walk at a Han River park in Namyangju, South Korea. Reuters
Some of the big stories from today's The Kathmandu Post.
Almost all major parties have two or more chairs, and that is not necessarily a good thing
Three chairmen have emerged from the unification of two political parties. On Saturday evening, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party led by Kamal Thapa united with the Rastriya Prajantra Party (United) led jointly by Pashupati Shumsher Rana and Prakash Chandra Lohani. Accordingly, the resulting Rastriya Prajatantra Party now has three presidents, not chairmen—Thapa, Rana and Lohani.
With the RPP adopting a structure with two or more leaders at the top, all of Nepal’s major political parties, except for the Nepali Congress, have now similarly organised themselves.
Businesses in Thamel catch a chill after Covid-19 scares off foreign tourists
It is early in the afternoon and Thamel’s shopkeepers are vying with one another to grab the attention of the few tourists who are still wandering in its streets. The effects of the outbreak of Covid-19 late last year in China and its spread across the world are now being felt in Kathmandu’s tourist hub, as tourist numbers dwindle amidst a much-vaunted tourism campaign and just ahead of the Spring tourist season.
Sunaina, a salesperson at the Timberland outlet in Thamel who didn’t want to reveal her full name due to fears of reprisal, said that the store has only been making two sales per day since the beginning of February.
All empty everywhere: Nepali workers describe life in South Korea under Covid-19
For the last three years, the South Korean city of Hwaseong has been a second home for Amir Tamang Yonjan. Whenever he gets any free time from work at a chemical factory, Yonjan likes to travel across the city and meet his Nepali friends.
But for the last month or so, Yonjan’s movement has been heavily circumscribed. He leaves his apartment in the morning, goes to work and comes home in the evening. He doesn’t go anywhere else because there’s nowhere for him to go. Like many other cities in South Korea, Hwaseong, a city in the Gyeonggi Province, has turned into a ghost town in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Central laboratory to be upgraded to respond to possible outbreak of Covid-19
While women employees serving at government offices across the country celebrated the International Women's Day on Sunday, Smirti Shrestha and Suni Dongol, technicians at the National Public Health Laboratory, were examining specimens— nasal and throat swabs of suspected coronavirus patients.
As the laboratory, under the Department of Health Services, has faced a shortage of technical staff including lab technicians for a long time, Shrestha and Dongol were asked to come to office on Sunday as well.
Grocery store sales soar on fears of shortages and price hikes
After face masks and hand sanitisers started flying off store shelves, a rush on grocery stores has begun sparked by fears of shortages and price hikes as the coronavirus outbreak spreads unabated, and Nepal is named a high risk country by the World Health Organisation.
Rajkumar Shrestha, president of the Nepal Retailers Association, said that sales of food items such as rice, edible oil, lentils, legumes and flour had swelled by more than 25 percent within a week.
30.12°C Kathmandu
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