KATHMANDU, JULY 12

No COVID-19 death of Nepalis living abroad was reported last week, said Non-Resident Nepali Association.

A press release issued today by the NRNA stated that it recorded zero death of Nepalis living abroad in the past week. The number of Nepalis diagnosed with COVID-19 in foreign countries has also gone down significantly in recent days. Around 92 per cent of the infected Nepalis abroad have recovered.

A clinically recovered COVID-19 patient should test negative for the virus twice in the gap of at least 24 hours. According to a tally of fatalities and infections compiled by the health committee of NRNA, as many as 143 Nepalis living abroad succumbed to COVID-19 and at least 29,000 Nepalis caught the COVID-19 in 34 countries till date. NRNA said it had compiled data of COVID-19 cases and fatalities based on the information received from Nepali doctors working in various hospitals, country chapters of NRNA and other organisations.

The countries where Nepalis succumbed to the COVID-19 are United Kingdom, UAE, Saudi Arabia, United States of America, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Ireland, Japan, Turkey, the Netherlands, Sweden, India and Oman. NRNA has appealed to all Nepalis to strictly comply with the health guidelines issued by the concerned countries.

Rescue of Nepalis stranded abroad is under way. NRNA informed that as many as 126,396 Nepalis had been rescued and sent home from 23 countries through 149 flights since the first week of June. Of them, 5,527 were rescued from the UAE, 5,243 from Kuwait, 4,030 from Saudi Arabia and 3,053 from Qatar.

Other countries from where Nepalis were rescued by the Government of Nepal, together with the concerned diplomatic missions and NRNA are Afghanistan, Australia, Myanmar, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Baharin, USA, UK, Israel and China.

As per NRNA, bodies of 157 Nepalis, who died in foreign countries due to various reasons during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, were airlifted to Nepal. “There were total 406 bodies of Nepali citizens. Of them, 157 were sent home and final rites of 146 deceased were performed in the destination countries with the consent of the concerned families back home,” read the release.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 13, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.