By Sagar Saud
The government of Nepal has repeatedly announced a lock down since March 2019 to protect its people from the Novel Corona virus epidemic which first spread from China's Wuhan province.
In January 2020, after a person was found to be infected with the corona virus in Nepal, the Government of Nepal closed the land border, transport and even air transport since March 2020.
Government offices, industries, trade, business, schools and colleges are all closed. Life has been disrupted due to the corona virus and the lock down caused by it. The daily wage earners have been hit the hardest. Employees of private schools and business establishments and hotels etc. have also been affected.
The expenditure of Government of Nepal, State Government and Local Government is incurred on quarantine management. There was no talk of creating more employment as development works were affected. Due to which the economic condition of the country has become pitiable.
Nepal is a small country in South Asia. It is a multi- religious, multi- cultural, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic country. There is traditional and conservative thinking, ideas and superstitions deep rooted in society. In an uneducated rural society with religious superstitions and conservative cultural thinking, an attempt has been made here to inform the spread of thoughts and rumors about the Novel Corona virus.
Various speculations and rumors about corona virus in Nepal
1. Initially, it was believed that the novel corona virus would not come to Nepal. As Nepal is a land inhabited by gods and goddesses, it was expected that such diseases would not occur here.
2. Nepalese have played with nature. Colds and fevers are cured without taking medicine. Nepali people have digested the stones and mud. Corona cannot have any effect on Nepalese.
3. To avoid the Corona virus or saying no member of the household is infected with the Novel Corona virus people started rubbing black embers in their foreheads that was found after digging the ground in front of the door of their house. It was also assumed that cow's urine has the potential to cure corona.
4. Nepalese living abroad started swearing to their gods and goddesses that they would not get corona disease.
5. When the number of people infected with the corona virus in Nepal started increasing day by day and people started dying, then another kind of rumor started spreading. Although people infected with the corona virus have recovered, they still have holes in their lungs and heart.
6. People have their own ideas, perceptions and assumptions. Some have reported in the media that the medicine of corona has been discovered, while others have claimed that the Ayurvedic herb has anti-corona resistance, which is a positive thing.
7. Having domestic green vegetables such as onions, garlic, ginger, Timur (pepper like), pepper, and Gurjo (a local herb) in daily meal can increase resistance power against corona. So people began to use these spices.
8. Some people started drinking alcohol every evening to avoid corona or to sanitize internally.
9. In social sites, rumors went viral about the spraying of medicine of corona virus in the air through helicopter. Down to earth people saw in the sky at night.
Today, as of September 12, 2020, about 52,000 corona cases have been reported in Nepal. 322 people have died of corona virus infection and 37000 infected people have returned home after recovery. (Source: worldometers.info)
Thus, if the scope of PCR testing in Nepal be widened to community level, the number of infected people is likely to increase, experts say.
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