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A senior head constable of Nepal Police died after being hit by an unidentified vehicle in Dhanusha on Monday.

The deceased has been identified as Bhojraj Parajuli of the Area Police Office, Dhalkebar.

Inspector Ram Sagar Singh of the Area Police Office, Dhalkebar said that the unidentified vehicle knocked Parajuli down in front of the Area Police Office while he was heading towards the office after finishing duty at Dhalkebar in Dhanusha last night.

A permanent resident of Chisankhugadhi Rural Municipality-5, Okhaldhunga, Parajuli was transferred to the Area Police Office, Dhalkebar three months ago.

Police said that they are looking into the case.

China's commercial capital of Shanghai was dealt a blow on Monday as authorities reported 58 new Covid-19 cases outside areas under lockdown, while Beijing pressed on with testing millions of people on a May Day holiday few were celebrating, Reuters reported.

Tough coronavirus measures in Shanghai have stirred rare public anger, with millions of the city's 25 million people stuck indoors for more than a month, some sealed inside fenced off residential compounds, and many struggling to secure daily necessities.

Shanghai residents breathed a sigh of relief at the weekend on news that no cases had been confirmed outside areas under lockdown for two days, but disappointment came on Monday with the report of the 58 new infections.

Authorities did not comment on the new cases at a media briefing but members of the public weighed in online.

"They announced that they stamped out cases at the community level too early," one person commented on the Weibo social media platform.

Still, many people also took heart from data that showed encouraging trends, with 32 new deaths on Sunday, compared with 38 a day earlier, and a total of 6,804 new local cases, down from 7,189 the previous day, according to Reuters.

"There is hope for May," said another Weibo user.

Despite the drop in cases, more fences were erected at some residential blocks in Shanghai on Monday, although authorities said employees of companies the government has put on a production priority list could apply for a pass if the building they lived in had no cases for seven days.

The coronavirus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and for two years authorities managed to keep outbreaks largely under control with lockdowns and travel bans.

But the fast-spreading Omicron variant has tested China's "zero-Covid" policy this year, an important one for President Xi Jinping who is expected to secure a precedent-breaking third leadership term in the autumn.

China's COVID policy is increasingly out of step with the rest of the world, where many governments have eased restrictions, or thrown them off altogether, in a bid to "live with Covid" even though infections are spreading.

New Zealand, which has had some of the toughest curbs in the world, finally opened its border on Monday, welcoming thousands of travelers from around the world for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. 

China has given no hint of deviating from its policy despite a mounting toll on the world's second-largest economy, and ripples of disruption through global supply chains, Reuters reported.

In the capital, home to 22 million people, authorities tightened Covid restrictions over the five-day Labor Day holiday that runs through Wednesday, traditionally one the busiest tourist seasons. 

Beijing, with dozens of daily infections in an outbreak in its second week, has not locked down, instead relying, at least for now, on mass testing to locate and isolate infections.

Beijing's restaurants are closed for dining in and some apartment blocks are sealed shut. The streets are quiet and the residents who do venture out have to show negative coronavirus tests to enter most public venues.

Authorities are tracking down close contacts of confirmed cases, warning them to stay at home and contact authorities, and calling on everyone to abide by instructions.

China reported 7,822 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, down from 8,329 new cases a day earlier, the National Health Commission said on Monday. 

All of China's 32 new deaths were in Shanghai, taking the country's overall death toll since the virus emerged to 5,092.

India, the only country with a comparable population to China's 1.4 billion people, has officially recorded more than half a million deaths, though some health experts believe its toll is even higher, according to Reuters.

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld both the right of an individual against forcible vaccination and the government’s current vaccination policy to protect communitarian health, but found certain vaccine mandates imposed by State governments/Union Territories, which tend to deny access to basic welfare measures and freedom of movement to unvaccinated individuals, disproportionate, The Hindu reported.

A Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao said that such vaccine mandates wilted in the face of “emerging scientific opinion” that the risk of transmission of COVID-19 infection from unvaccinated individuals was almost on par with that from vaccinated persons.

The court directed the Centre to set up a virtual public platform at the earliest to facilitate individuals and private doctors to report adverse vaccine events without compromising their privacy, according to The Hindu.

“Information related to adverse events is crucial to create awareness about vaccines and their efficiency, apart from contributing to scientific studies about the pandemic... There is a pertinent need for collection of data on adverse events and wider participation,” Justice Rao, who authored the judgment, observed.

The third edition of Nepal-Switzerland bilateral consultations was held in Kathmandu on Monday.

During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on matters of common interest, including the bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries, regional cooperation, cooperation within the multilateral frameworks and global issues such as climate change, migration, and human rights, read a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The discussions also covered Nepal’s graduation from the least developed country status in 2026, Covid-19 related support as well as meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. 

The two sides reviewed all aspects of bilateral relations and discussed the possibilities of enhancing engagement in the areas of trade, investment and tourism, according to the statement.

The Nepali side thanked the Swiss government for thelongstanding cooperation to Nepal as a priority countryand stated that such cooperation will be vital in moving the country forward along the path of economic recovery, green growth and sustainable graduation from the LDC status. 

The Swiss side expressed readiness to work with Nepal in further strengthening bilateral relations for the benefit of both countries. The Swiss side also stated that its development cooperation will continue in Nepal through the Swiss Cooperation Strategy 2023-26, the Ministry said.

The mechanism of Bilateral Consultations was established in 2015 between the two Foreign Ministries. 

The previous meeting of the mechanismwas held in June 2018