In a bid to prevent the spread of Covid-19, Lalitpur Metropolitan City has come up with a new drive to make it mandatory for the public to wear a mask.

Under the new initiative, the city office has started distributing free masks and conducting awareness programmes in crowded areas expected to brim with shoppers ahead of the Tihar festival.

The city office has mobilised its police to monitor whether people are wearing a mask and practicing social distancing or not. “We have formed six groups of city police to monitor people in crowded areas,” said Sitaram Hachhethu, chief of the implementation division of Lalitpur Metropolitan City.

Although the Ministry of Home Affairs in July notified all the 77 district administration offices to take strict action against people who are found disobeying health protocols, the order hasn’t been well implemented even though cases of Covid-19 have spiked in different parts of the country, including Kathmandu Valley.

Hachhethu said that on Monday, the first day of the drive, city police distributed surgical masks to 200 people. “This program is also a part of building friendly relationships with the public. We found more people are aware of wearing masks than we had expected,” said Hachhethu, who stationed himself at Mangalbazar Chowk to distribute masks. “We are focussing on areas such as Jawalakhel, Lagankhel and Mangalbazar areas.”

According to Deyi Gurung, the Covid-19 focal person at the city, till date 5,442 people have been infected with coronavirus in the city—3,861 have already recuperated from the infection. The city’s data shows that at present 1,475 virus infected persons are staying in home isolation. So far the metropolitan city has reported 35 deaths.

Although Kathmandu Metropolitan City has emerged as a hotspot for Covid-19 with 23,968 positive cases and 147 deaths (as of Saturday), the city does not have any plans to monitor the movement of people and enforce health safety protocols in crowded areas.

Ishwor Man Dongal, spokesperson for the city, a drive similar to the one run by Lallitpur is impossible to conduct in Kathmandu. “Now, people have to be conscious of their own safety. We have been disseminating this message through different media,” said Dongal.

Meanwhile, spokesperson for Lalitupur Raju Raj Maharjan, who was infected with the Covid-19 two weeks ago and still in isolation, said the city started this drive to make people more aware and stop the easy transmission of the disease.

The World Health Organization has time and again emphasised the importance of wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing and washing hands in preventing transmission of the virus from one person to another.

Lalitpur city in March had made cloth masks for its residents after the Valley witnessed a shortage of masks. The city had also prepared hand sanitiser.