Kathmandu

Hotels, restaurants to offer take away services only, 50pc staff to operate BFIs

Hotels, restaurants to offer take away services only, 50pc staff to operate BFIs

By THT Online

This undated image shows the cottages of Everest Panorama Resort in Daman, Thaha Municipality, Makawanpur District. Photo courtesy: hotels.com

KATHMANDU: With the steady surge in the number of coronavirus cases across the nation, the Cabinet meeting held on Monday has decided to re-impose restrictions on various service providing units. In the same, Hotels and Restaurants can no longer host guests and can only offer take away services while other provisions on regulation of restrictive measures have been sketched out too. 'We decided to allow hospitality sector to operate only take-away service after they failed to comply with government's safety protocol against the disease,' informed government's spokesperson Dr Yuvaraj Khatiwada while briefing about the cabinet decision to media. Likewise, the government also directed all the Bank and Financial Institutions (BFIs) and other corporate houses to operate with 50 percent staff capacity and arrange work from home system to contain the spread of contagion in work settings. Similarly, operation of educational institutions, long-distance vehicles, domestic and international flights scheduled to open from August 17 have been postponed indefinitely until further notice. Watch Government Spokesperson's briefing to the press on Monday's Cabinet decision, here The government decided to roll back its earlier decisions to ease restrictions after observing rapid rise in the number of COVID-19 cases surfaced with lifting off of lockdown. It has also been decided that family members of Nawaraj Bk and other five youths killed in Chaurjhari-incident of Rukum-west will get Rs one million each in compensation. Free medical treatment will be provided to all those injured in that incident, Khatiwada added. Federal government to not impose lockdown, authority passed on to local levels The Federal government will not impose nationwide lockdown as the government has decided to pass on the authority to District Administration Office and local levels across the country to impose restrictions as and when needed. The restrictions will be based on the intensity and rate of increase in number of reported cases in districts and local levels. So far, Nepal has reported 23,948 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 83 deaths.