Kathmandu, February 7
Foreign Affairs Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali has clarified that the implementation of the government’s plan to evacuate Nepalis from the Hubei province of China to protect them from the novel coronavirus infection was delayed because the government was yet to meet standards stipulated by the World Health Organisation about their quarantine.
Receiving a group of family members of the Nepali students who are currently in Wuhan at his ministry on Friday, the minister said the government was preparing for their evacuation, hence it could not fix a date by when the Nepalis would be evacuated.
He informed the families that the government should prepare isolation wards and health professionals to attend them before evacuating the Nepalis. Claiming the government was serious about the issue, he urged the families to wait for a few more days.
The family members who gheraoed the Ministry of Health on Thursday met Home Affairs Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and minister Gyawali today and demanded the evacuation as soon as possible.
