A meeting of the Council of Ministers is scheduled to be held at 2:00 pm today will discuss the new lockdown modality.

The national lockdown was first announced on March 24 to prevent and control the spread of coronavirus infection. The government is said to be adopting a policy of gradually easing the lockdown as long-term lockdown has made it difficult for many to sustain a living.

The COVID-19 Prevention and Control High Level Committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister, Ishwor Pokhrel, has prepared a proposal to loosen the lockdown and has submitted it to the Council of Ministers for discussion.

The proposal submitted to the Council of Ministers includes gradually loosening the lockdown in five stages – each stage lasting two weeks.

Earlier, the COVID-19 Crisis Management Center (CCMC) had submitted a proposal to ease the lockdown in six phases.

Defense Minister Pokharel, on the other hand, had proposed to ease the lockdown in districts with less than 100 active cases. However, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli denied the request.

The Ministry of Defense then prepared a proposal by merging the two proposals and includes resuming daily activities in five stages.