Compared to two months ago, there are no giant crowds on the indo-Nepal border on those days. Although the border is meant to be sealed, Nepalese who are still returning from India are no longer quarantined, raising fears that the giant spread of the virus in India may also occur in Nepal.
Here, at the Behaliya checkpoint, there are no giant crowds waiting to be examined and quarantine centers on both sides of the border are empty. Returnees are allowed to enter freely, have their temperature checked, and if they don’t show symptoms, they can move into their district of residence for about two weeks.
However, public fitness experts say that while border chaos has shrunk and the flow of returnees is not as large as before, allowing others to go to their residential district without proving the dangers of spreading the disease along the way.
“Previously, the maximum number of people who tested positive were asymptomatic, but last week the symptoms in patients assessed in the border towns were all bihar and Uttar Pradesh,” says Rabindra Pandey, a public fitness expert.
He adds that previously, most of the people who tested positive in Nepal were asymptomatic and recovered quickly. But in the last 15 weeks, there have been many with severe coVID-19 symptoms in border towns.
“This is evidence that we want to be vigilant about the spread of the virus in Nepal through other people crossing the border for industry or visits,” Pandey warns, “so far, 95% of cases shown in Nepal have a history in India. “
It is feared that the disease will spread smoothly to other parts of Nepal since restrictions were lifted within the country, and long-distance buses will operate from 30 July.
A circle of relatives of five tested positive in the Kathmandu Valley this week, and touch studies showed that the daughter-in-law of relatives had traveled from Sitamarhi in Bihar and passed it on to her circle of relatives. The border towns of Rajbiraj, Birganj, Inaruwa and parts of Biratnagar were cordoned off this week after an increase in the number of patients with severe symptoms.
The locks were re-imposed in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, but on Sunday there was a busy movement of cargo trucks, investors and others crossing the checkpoint on foot. Today, around two hundred Nepalese enter the country daily only from the Behaliya checkpoint, a sharp decline from thousands two months ago. Indian staff may return to Nepal if they have Ministry of Interior documents received through their employers.
Rupandehi CDO Mahadev Pantha says: “We record the main points of each and every incoming Nepalese, they are taken the temperature and the Nepalese army informs their municipalities and takes them to their residency districts where they are supposed to be isolated for 14 days.
Although there is some regulation at major checkpoints, the India-Nepal border is open and there are many posts through which other people can enter and exit. Armed police (APF) say they have each 1 km along the Border with India, and in recent weeks there have been common clashes in Nawalparasi, Rautahat and Siraha districts as they tried to prevent others from crossing.
“There are a lot of other people sneaking through rivers and fields, there’s no way we can do it if we don’t put barbed wire,” says an AFP officer here.
India is now the third highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths after the United States and Brazil. More worryingly, new daily instances and deaths are on the rise, with 35,000 new instances each day and 720 deaths from the disease reported on Sunday. Although the number of cases matching one million inhabitants and mortality rates in India remain lower than in other countries, experts say there would possibly be many more cases undetected.
States bordering Nepal have noticed a sharp increase in some cases. As of July 26, Uttar Pradesh had 67,000 cases and 1,400 deaths, Bihar had 36,400 cases and 232 deaths, and Uttarakhand had 6,000 positive cases and 63 deaths. Cases are also piling up in Nepal’s other border state, West Bengal, which on Monday had more than 60,000 cases shown and 1,372 deaths from COVID-19.
Uttar Pradesh saw its biggest buildup with 3620 new instances on Sunday. Sikkim, some other Indian state bordering Nepal to the east, recorded 500 cases and on Sunday experienced its first COVID-19 death.
The largest build-up in new cases during the following week was in Province 2, which has seven districts bordering Bihar in India. Prime Minister Lalbabu Raut announced over the weekend that the border would become tighter and told the 3 security agencies to step up their surveillance.