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Nepal has logged 435 news cases Covid-19 in the past 24 hours. As Omicron cases continue to surge across the world, Covid-19 cases are gradually increasing in Nepal.

370 new cases were recorded on January 4, 435 people tested positive on January 5, taking the total nationwide active cases tally to 5,225. A total of 6,715 PCR tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, and 239 patients achieved recovery.

Nepali Congress (NC) leader Shekhar Koirala has objected to the nominations made by Party President Sher Bahadur Deuba in the party’s Central Working Committee.

Koirala who contested with Deuba for the party presidency in the party’s 14^th General Convention held in December 2021, asked Deuba to disclose the basis of such appointments.  

Issuing a public statement, Koirala warned party cadres should know the criteria of nominations. On January 1, President Deuba appointed 10 members in CWC. Leaders who got appointed had lost the party’s elections.

The 5th Summit of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is likely to take place in March this year.

Tenzin Lekphell, Secretary-General of BIMSTEC in a meeting with Nepali officials proposed March 30 as a date for holding the Summit of the regional body. The 4th Summit took place in Nepal in 2018. The Summit to be held every two years was postponed due to the Covid-10 pandemic.

The date will be announced once the Secretary-General takes the consent of all member countries.  He is currently on a tour of member countries to expedite the process of holding the 5th conference. Discussions are underway to finalise the modality of Summit in the face of the pandemic. 

The spread of Covid-19 in Nepal, as well as the ensuing restrictions, tends to closely follow the trends in India. Right now, India’s major cities like Delhi and Mumbai are witnessing a soaring number of covid-positive cases, most of them of the Omicron variant. These cities have thus started re-imposing restrictions on crowding. As the Omicron variant has already been spotted in Nepal and the number of positive cases is again on the rise, there has been renewed talk of another lockdown in the country’s capital city. This is no idle speculation.

On current projections, virologists in Nepal expect positive case numbers to hit a new peak sometime at the end of January. Meanwhile, the scheduled dose of booster vaccination for the elderly and the infirm has been suspended, on the day the campaign was to start. Many have forgotten that we are still in the middle of a deadly pandemic, having long since abandoned protective habits like hand-washing and mask-wearing. Christmas and New Year parties were in full swing.

Also read: Editorial: Meaningless Maoist document

It’s been a horrendous couple of years and people are justifiably getting ‘covid fatigue’. The government too does not inspire confidence with its rather blasé approach to covid-control. Having the elderly and the infirm visit vaccination centers only to be told that vaccination has been suspended is a cruel joke to play on the country’s most vulnerable people—and there could be no more egregious sign of incompetence.

With Omicron, the country is again in unchartered territory. There is no way of predicting its severity. What we do know is that it is more contagious than the older Delta variant. Now, yet another and still more virulent variant, IHU, has been found in France. This means Nepal still needs to maintain a high level of vigilance to ward off another wave of the pandemic. The Covid-19 has been a tricky virus to handle for the whole world, for such a long time. In its current ever-mutating form, the virus could get trickier still. We can ill afford botch-jobs of the kind enacted on the elderly recently.

Facial House celebrated its 14th anniversary on January 1. The annual celebration was held in the office of the newly redesigned Facial House, located on the fourth floor of the Kathmandu Mall.

Former president of the FNCCI Bhavani Rana, actress Puja Sharma, filmmaker Shovit Basnet, actor Dikpal Karki and Yash Raj Garach were present on the occasion. 

“I am a regular customer of Facial House due to its excellent service,” says Sharma. Similarly, Rana appreciated the dedication of Sushma Mahara, the managing director of Facial House.

“We have expanded our area so that we can now serve almost 60 customers at a single time,” Mahara adds who have been running three branches in Kathmandu and two outside the valley.

Secretary-General of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Tenzin Lekphell has appreciated Nepal’s contributions in advancing the BIMSTEC process.

In a meeting with Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka he Stated that the Fourth BIMSTEC Summit held in Kathmandu was an important milestone in streamlining the areas of cooperation and institutional strengthening of the organization.

According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Khadka commended the Secretary-General for his leadership and expressed Nepal’s commitment to contribute constructively to help BIMSTEC make further advances.

 He underlined the need to ensure that the Fifth Summit to be held in 2022 builds on the progress made thus far and provides important breakthroughs towards realizing the regional aspirations, the statement reads.

Both sides assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economies and societies in the region and underlined the imperative to work in closer cooperation through the BIMSTEC framework.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is scheduled to visit India next week, according to government sources.

PM Deuba is attending the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, a development summit organized by the Gujarat Province of India.  After attending the Summit, Deuba will hold bilateral talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  

According to Indian Express, the heads of State of five nations, including Prime Ministers of Russia, Mauritius, Nepal, and Slovenia, and the President of Mozambique will attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit scheduled to be held from January 10-12. A total of 26 nations will be partnering the summit as “partner countries”, the highest number since the summit began in 2003.

Government officials are working on the issues that PM Deuba should take up with the Indian side during the bilateral talks. euba who became prime minister in July has not visited India yet. Deuba and Modi held sidelines talks during COP26 Summit held in Scotland in November.

Over time, Pratap KC, born in Janakpur, has established himself as a well-known flute artist of Nepal. He has been dedicated to learning music since he was a toddler.

KC has worked with many renowned bands like ‘Rock Sitar’, led by the late Bijaya Vaidya. He now is the key man of Prana Mundi—a prominent folk fusion band—well-known for his diverse set of playing abilities.

He has also helped in the tourism field with his flutes as he brought Nepali folk to Europe and other parts of the world, promoting Nepali music. KC has performed on numerous major international stages and has accomplished his objectives of the musical journey. With his musical prowess, he also assisted 2015 earthquake victims by putting on a spectacle with many Bollywood stars to raise the fund.

KC is an inspiration to young music aspirants, as his priority relies on practicing fusion with young artists.