Meal delivery service Foodmandu receives a hundred calls a day even though they closed from the first day of the lockdown. Company founder Manohar Adhikari said they were forced to suspend services as the government has not allowed home delivery of cooked food.

Araniko Rajbhandari, president of the Restaurant and Bar Association of Nepal, said that almost all its member establishments had shut down totally. "Except for a very few providing take away and home delivery, most major restaurants and cafes are all shuttered," he said.

During the first lockdown last year, restaurateurs resumed operations after a two-month break by providing take away and home delivery service. But as per Rajbhandari, this time they do not have any plans to reopen the restaurants anytime soon with caseloads and mortality rates remaining in the highs.

GP Sharma, owner of Nomad Restaurant and Bar in Thamel, said they stopped all services from the first day of the prohibitory order. He doesn't plan to provide even take away or home delivery service in the near future. According to him, all restaurants in the area are shuttered.

“If this situation extends and the government imposes strict rules for running restaurants, we will have no option but to shut down for good,” Sharma said.

More than 130,000 workers directly engaged in the approximately 3,500 restaurants in the valley have lost their incomes after they closed.

And with the eateries shuttered, thousands of jobs in the online food delivery sector have also evaporated.

Foodmandu, which used to employ 250 people, has trimmed its workforce to 85 due to the lockdown.

Last July, the Restaurant and Bar Association of Nepal and three trade unions reached an agreement to pay Rs4,100 monthly to all employees, and this arrangement will be implemented this time too, Rajbhandari said.

With the restaurants closed and the government banning home delivery services, most food on-demand businesses have shut down.

“We have been receiving enquiries mostly from infected people who cannot go out to buy daily essentials and have difficulty cooking their meals,” said Adhikari of Foodmandu which delivers restaurant foods.

Rohit Tiwari, CEO and co-founder of Foodmario, said they have also been receiving endless inquiries but are unable to fill orders.

“Delivering cooked food at this time of need is more than just doing a business. It is serving customers who are in a difficult situation, and helping to support the economy too by providing jobs to many people,” Tiwari said.

Contactless home delivery systems help to prevent the spread of infection besides building trust in ecommerce, he said.

"People whose relatives are in hospital and cannot visit them and give them food are also making inquiries to deliver meals to them. We find ourselves in a helpless situation when we have to say no to them,” Tiwari told the Post.

Home food delivery entrepreneurs say that the online system allows them to conduct contact tracing if any of the delivery boys should get infected, and help to prevent the spread of infection.

“Each food on-demand service delivering meals to people's doorsteps means at least 100 families do not have to come out of their homes,” said Tiwari.

E-food entrepreneurs say that they can assure safety while operating their businesses. “During last year’s lockdown, when the government allowed us to operate, we were doing regular PCR tests for our team,” Tiwari said.

As services need to be provided frequently, the company makes sure that all precautions are taken by following health standards, he added.

“If the government has doubts regarding our service, they can make inspections and take action if anyone fails to follow the health standards,” Adhikari said.

The District Administrative Office has not mentioned food delivery and take away system in its prohibitory order and has disallowed such services. The government has not allowed restaurants to open for take away, and since no deliveries are permitted after 10 am, everything is closed.

Foodmario, which delivers home-cooked food, stopped services from the first day of the lockdown.

“The government's belief that providing home delivery service will spread the virus is totally wrong. There is no data showing that stopping delivery services will stop the spread of the virus,” Tiwari said.

"If the government wants to reduce the infection caseload, it needs to allow delivery companies to provide their services," he said.