KATHMANDU: Banke District Administration has decreed curfew in Nepalgunj for three days, starting Tuesday. The curfew order follows the steady rise in number of Covid-19 cases in the city.

A meeting presided by Chief District Officer Kumar Bahadur Khadka in attendence of concerned stakeholders, including representatives of political parties, decided to recommend imposition of curfew from 11:00am Tuesday till Thursday midnight.

"The decision was taken to cut down the spread of transmission, to making contact tracing of the infected people more effective and also to collect samples of as many people as possible," chairperson of NCP (NCP) Banke IP Kharel informed.

The vegetable markets at BP Chowk and Rani-Talau will also shutdown with this decision.

Of the total 82 cases, 67 of them active, as many as 23 cases hail from Nepalgunj. The city saw a sudden surge in number of infected cases since the first person was detected with the virus transmission last week.