PM Oli in his speech urged the citizens to make necessary changes in their daily lives incorporating precautionary measures such as regular hand washing, avoiding social gatherings, maintaining a safe distance during conversations, stay home, avoid hoarding necessary items.

T"suggestions, information, consult with health professionals and follow their advice", PM Oli stressed on the need to communicate in his speech.

"Nepalis returning home from COVID-19 affected countries are to remain in self-isolation for 14-days to protect their families and others."

PM Oli expressed optimism that the citizens would act responsibly in this collective fight against the global epidemic.

"The government has made necessary arrangements for effective mobilisation of highly motivated and dedicated health professionals and security personnel and others fighting from the frontline" PM Oli shared.

The PM has encouraged working from home culture for most of private sector employees. However, government officials are required to carry out their duties from their respective offices, for the time being.

Anyone involved in creating artificial scarcity in necessary items and black-marketing would be booked and stern actions would be taken as per the existing laws, PM Oli warned.

As the financial sector is crumbling due to coronavirus scare, the government will come up with special programmes to address the issues as per recommendations made by the Ministry of Finance which is closely monitoring the situation, added the PM.

The Prime Minister assured that the government is aware of the impact of the situation on the daily wage earners and would come up with a special package addressing their needs.

Likewise, he said that he is well aware of the plight of citizens that are currently stranded abroad, assuring that this issue will find a solution soon. He urged people to reach out to the respective diplomatic missions around them and relay their problems.

The government has decided to prohibit all international flights to and from Nepal starting from March 22 to 31. Mandatory health screening has been arranged in all the border crossings from India and China.

Beginning from Monday, all the long-distance transportation service will also be halted until further notice.

Other than operations categorised as 'essential services', all services provided by public, community and private sectors in all three tiers of government will halt from March 22 to April 3, Oli informed.

Nepal, according to Oli, will also contribute NRs 100 million to the SAARC COVID-19 emergency fund. Indian PM Narendra Modi during the recently held SAARC 'video-summit' to discuss strategies to collectively tackle the global pandemic, had initiated the establishment of the fund.

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