Kathmandu, May 8
After weeks of being dispatched, 30,000 coronavirus test kits to be gifted by the Swiss government to Nepal have arrived in Kathmandu on Thursday evening.
Swiss Ambassador to Nepal, Elisabeth von Capeller, handed over them to Minister for Health and Population, Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal, at the Tribhuvan International Airport of Kathmandu, yesterday.
Earlier, it was reported that the kits were stuck in Malaysia as the government of Nepal failed to collect and transport them in Kathmandu, resulting in a halt in tests in many labs of the country. But yesterday, the Nepal Airlines widebody aircraft chartered by the Australian Embassy to evacuate its citizens stranded in Nepal transported the kits from Singapore on its way back to Kathmandu.
Efforts had been made to reroute the aircraft via Malaysia. But owing to the Australian Embassy’s disagreement, the kits were taken to Singapore from Malaysia via a land route.
Previous to this, the Swiss government has already handed over 4,000 PPE sets, 1,000 infrared thermometres, and 8,000 N95 masks to the Nepal government.
