November 9: The Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC) has recommended the government to halt chartered flights to rescue Nepali citizens stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The CCMC took such decision during a meeting held on Sunday (November 8), arguing that most of the stranded Nepalis have been already rescued from foreign countries.

CCMC decided to recommend the government to halt the rescue flights as all diplomatic missions of Nepal have reported rescuing almost all stranded citizens.

If there is need to rescue any citizens then the government can provide help through regular flights instead of chartered flights, CCMC said in the recommendation.

Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Mahendra Prasad Guragain informed that the CCMC has  also suggested the government to reopen cable cars, jungle safari and adventure tourism in the country.

The CCMC has also requested the government to set up health units at local levels for consultations considering the increase in number of people staying in home isolation.

According to the CCMC, the government has so far rescued a total of 136,216 citizens stranded in 60 different countries since the pandemic started spreading across the globe.

Altogether 40,230 Nepali citizens were rescued from Dubai which is the maximum number of people brought home from any particular country. Likewise, the lease number of Nepali rescued from abroad was from Somalia, where only one Nepali citizen was stranded.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Nepalis returned home during the pandemic from India through land route but only 89 were airlifted from the neighbouring country.

A total of 634 Nepali citizens stranded in China were rescued during the crisis.

A total of 930 flights were conducted to airlift the stranded citizens. Among those flights, 454 were regular flights while the remaining were chartered flights.

The government had decided to rescue its stranded citizens five months ago although it had imposed lockdown seven months ago. The citizens were rescued on priority basis, taking into consideration the age, gender and other factors such as health.