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Enthusiasm in Nepal’s hospitality industry

The COVID cases in the country right now are very low if not the lowest to date. 306 new cases were confirmed in the country in the past 24 hours.

Eventually, after a month of celebrations, the festival season has ended in Nepal. The auspicious Dashain alongside the festival of lights; Tihar was celebrated with vigorous exuberance and passion all over the country followed by one of the major festivals mainly celebrated by Hindus in Nepal’s southern plains known as Chhath was observed on Wednesday. The fact that this was probably the most COVID-less holiday season in the past 2 years added more zeal and compassion throughout.

The COVID cases in the country right now are very low if not the lowest to date. 306 new cases were confirmed in the country in the past 24 hours. In the last 24 hours, 8,008 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 291 returned positive. Likewise, 1,598 people underwent antigen tests for the virus, of which an additional 15 tested positive. Of total tests, 3.63 percent of the PCR and 0.93 percent of antigen samples returned positive, keeping the overall per-day positivity rate at 3.18 percent which is a record low compared to a few months back.  In the past 24 hours, 348 people have recovered while six deaths were reported. Of the total cases so far, 798,274 people have achieved recovery. Likewise, 11,477 died, according to the ministry. The country’s recovery rate is 97.7 percent while the death rate is 1.4 percent only which is comparatively pretty low than some countries.

Meanwhile, 34,716 people were vaccinated on Saturday while 15,906 people were vaccinated on Sunday.

Nepal is set to vaccinate around 78 percent of its 30 million population or around 25 million people, as per the government’s new plan that also includes those aged between 12 and 18 years. The government earlier had planned to vaccinate only those aged 15 years and above. However, the vaccination campaign is being operated in full swing rigorously all over the country. The health authorities have also started administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to immunocompromised people including children above 12 years of age from 24 hospitals throughout the country from last Sunday. The vaccine is being administered to people suffering from renal failure, those taking dialysis treatments, people taking medicines after organ transplantation, cancer patients, and those suffering from lung diseases. Likewise, those suffering from high blood pressure and taking medicines, people suffering from diabetes, heart ailments and those with compromised immunity due to various reasons including HIV/AIDS can take the Pfizer shots.

In a bid to vaccinate more people in Nepal, the government recently has procured six million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine from the US which Nepal is set to receive shortly. It was last week that a Cabinet meeting had approved a proposal of the Health Ministry to procure 6 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from the US through a non-disclosure agreement. The authorities have started preparations to set up ultra-cold storage facilities for the jabs. Officials said they are working to set up facilities that can store at least 1.5 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a time. Currently, the government storage can store only 100,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine in minus 80 degrees Celsius.

Earlier, UNICEF had provided four ultra-cold freezers with a combined storage capacity of around 100,000 doses. The 100,620 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provided to Nepal by the US through COVAX have been stored in the freezers.

As of Sunday, 7,564,135 people (24.9 percent of the total population) have been fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry and 8,840,014 people (29.1 percent of the total population) have taken at least 1 jab of the vaccine in the country. Considering the present scenario, the tourist season is showing good positive results in Nepal especially in the trekking sector. Finally, we can see travellers in the country more for trekking purposes including some leisure activities. This surely has built up enthusiasm among tourism and hospitality professionals. The COVID situation has been well under control for the past few months now with the inoculation drives being administered strongly.  Thus, we are hoping for better days ahead with the hope to see you all very soon amidst the Himalayas.

Executive Chairman - Temple Tiger Group of Companies | Website | + Articles

Basant Raj Mishra, the executive chairman of the Temple Tiger Group of Companies, is a well-known name in the travel trade community. Former chairman of the PATA Nepal Chapter, Secretary of PATA Nepal Chapter, Executive Member of PATA Nepal Chapter, Advisor of PATA Nepal Chapter and Founder Board of Nepal Association Tourism Board (NTB). Mr. Mishra is an energetic and visionary entrepreneur. A widely traveled entrepreneur, he also has been carrying out responsibilities as the Honorary Consul of Republic of Chile to Nepal. Mr. Mishra is a well known person in the field of tourism and conservation, having a lot of experiences in the cultural, adventure and wildlife tourism. Till date Mr. Mishra is very active, enthusiastic in promoting tourism and have served many National and International Board of Trustees. He is running his company very successfully for the last 34 years in Nepal and abroad. He received many national and international awards.

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