The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has recommended to re-enforce the lockdown if the active cases of coronavirus infection surpass the 25,000 mark.

At present, the number of active infections is 18,437 of which around 9,000 are concentrated in the Kathmandu valley alone.

A meeting of the Incident Command System (ICS), held on Wednesday, led by of Health Secretary decided to recommend the measure as infections are rising steadily.

The spokesperson for Health Ministry, Dr Jageshwar Gautam, informed that the current health infrastructure is not adequate to manage a crisis of higher scale and in a bid to control the spread of infections, lockdown will have to be considered in such situation.

Likewise, the ministry has decided that businesses and services that are unable to adhere to the health protocols will be shut down for at least a month given the high-risk situation and steady spread of the pandemic.

Similarly, the ICS has authorised concerned bodies to take action or recommend action against hospitals and labs that are charging more than government-fixed rate for conducting PCR tests.