Kathmandu, May 16
The government says current legal provisions are not adequate to launch an effective Covid-19 response in the country.
A meeting of the Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre, a special government body formed to prepare strategies against the pandemic, on Sunday also directed the Ministry of Law and other concerned bodies to prepare legal instruments to deal with such crises at present and in the future.
Currently, the government is implementing the Infectious Disease Act, 1964, in responding to the pandemic, but the CCMC today concluded that it was not enough.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, a member of the committee, says an additional legal provision is required to mobilise all health facilities including those run under federal, provincial and local governments in the country in a unified manner.
Likewise, there are problems in the public procurement law as the current provision does not allow the government to pay in advance, which is often a precondition for the purchase of vaccines among others, according to him.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had also attended the meeting.
