The Kathmandu District Administration Office has decided to seal major commercial areas of Kathmandu including Teku, Ason, Indra Chowk and New Road, saying that the more virus infections were seen in the areas.

“Some parts of Teku have already been sealed. We are preparing to seal Ason, Indra Chowk and New Road,” said Kamal Pandey, administrative officer at Kathmandu District Administration Office. “The decision was taken by the meeting of the District Corona Crisis Management Committees, headed by Ram Sundar Baidhya, chair of the Kathmandu District Coordination Committee as per the recent Cabinet decision.”

On August 3, the Cabinet meeting decided that the District Corona Crisis Management Committees can take necessary decisions after assessing the situation and put in place measures like restrictions on public and vehicular movements, prohibitory orders and curfew.

Earlier, the meeting of the three Chief District Officers of the Kathmandu Valley–Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur– and the chiefs of their security bodies has also decided to halt all the services other than essential ones for the next 15 days beginning Sunday.

“Except for essential services, all other services provided by the district administration offices will be halted for 15 days,” said Narayan Prasad Bhatta, Chief District Office of Lalitpur. “We will inform the public through separate notices.”

Essential services include activities related to peace and security, direct applications and complaints, passes for essential movements and legal cases and disaster management.

Services like issuance of citizenships, registration and renewal of arms, organisations and newspapers, renewal of private security companies, distribution of passports and identity cards of minors are some of the non-essential services which will be halted for 15 days.

The decision was taken following the rapid growth in the number of Covid-19 cases in the Valley since the lockdown was lifted on July 21.

Of the total 360 new cases on Thursday 87 were from Kathmandu Valley. So far, Kathmandu Valley has reported 874 cases.

Since Thursday, an odd-even rule for vehicles has been in place in the Valley and some other districts which have more than 200 active cases. Public and vehicular movements have been barred from 9pm to 5am.

The government has also banned social gatherings–parties, seminars, feasts and public programmes–at hotels and restaurants.