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The government has decided to impose the odd and even system for vehicles in the Kathmandu Valley from midnight today to stem the surge of Covid-19.

A joint meeting of all three District Administration Offices of the Kathmandu Valley held on Thursday made the decision to this effect.

Acting Chief District Officer of Kathmandu Suprabha Khanal Dhungel said that vehicles with odd-registration number plates will operate on odd days and even registration plates on even days in the Kathmandu Valley.

The rule applies to both public and private vehicles.

She said that the public vehicles can carry passengers not more than their standard seating capacity. All the passengers should wear masks and the sanitizers should be provided at the door of the vehicles.

Kathmandu Valley has been facing shortage of cetamol, an important medicine for seasonal ailments, at present.

Prof Dr Jagadish Prasad Agrawal searched the medicine in many stores but to no avail. Instead he bought another medicine.

CPN-UML lawmaker Shanta Chaudhary also did not find the cetamol, which is used to relieve pain and reduce fever. She had taken to social media on Thursday to express her dissatisfaction.

Consumers claimed that the collusion between drug manufacturers and traders has created artificial shortage of cetamol in the wake of the coronavirus fear.

“The traders have been creating artificial shortages of paracetamol in the country to earn money from black marketing, taking advantage of the precarious situation,” Bishnu Timilsina, Deputy General Secretary of the Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights Nepal said.

Chairman of the Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal Prajwal Jung Pandey,however, said that the pharmaceutical industries have been producing paracetamol.

“Around 20-22 industries are producing paracetamol. We have been sending paracetamol in the market on a daily basis,” he said.

Mrigendra Meher Shrestha, the president of Nepal Chemists and Druggists Association, said there was no shortage of cetamol a week ago.

“The Covid-19 cases increased drastically in the past few days,” Sherstha said , adding, “Consumers bought more than they needed and the demand increased in the market.”

The government has not made public the number of people infected from the Omicron variant of coronavirus separately. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, the number of Covid-19 cases has increased dramatically because of the Omicron.

Nepal recorded 12, 338 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the highest daily infection number since the start of the pandemic.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 27,497 (21,007 PCR and 6,490 antigen) tests were conducted today. 

The Ministry said that 649 infected people have been recovered and four persons succumbed to the disease.

Meanwhile, the Kathmandu Valley recorded 6,981 cases, out of which 5,001 cases were detected in Kathmandu and Lalitpur and Bhaktapur reported 1,130 and 850 respectively.

Tribhuvan University has decided to postpone all its scheduled examinations until further notice.

A meeting of the the Examination Controller Office of the TU held on Thursday decided to postpone all the exams scheduled to start from January 23.

Meanwhile, the Public Service Commission also postponed all the scheduled examinations until the next notice.