KATHMANDU, May 17: Nepal on Sunday thanked India for providing medical supplies, including testing kits, as part of the bilateral cooperation to fight the coronavirus pandemic in the country, which reported the first death from the deadly disease on Saturday.
A total of 281 people have tested positive for the COVID-19 as on Saturday night. So far, 26,691 tests have been conducted and there are 244 active cases while 36 have recovered in the country. One person has died.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pradeep Gyawali in a tweet thanked the Indian government for the medical supplies.
“Sincere thanks to the Government of India for providing medical logistics and testing kits for 30,000 tests which were handed over to the Ministry of Health and Population today as a part of ongoing cooperation to fight the pandemic,” Gyawali wrote on Twitter.
India on Sunday gifted the medical supplies to Nepal to help it fight the coronavirus pandemic.
India’s Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra handed over the Pathodetect COVID-19 Qualitative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test kits manufactured in India to Nepal’s Minister for Health and Population Bhanubhakta Dhakal.
The consignment, as a gift from the people of India to the people of Nepal, will enable Nepal’s health professionals to conduct PCR tests on about 30,000 people, according to a statement by the Indian embassy.
On April 22, India gifted Nepal 23 tonnes of medicines.
“Gifting of medicines and test kits manifests the continuing cooperation of our leaders and people of the two countries to prepare, act and fight together the common challenge of COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the statement.
These initiatives stem from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video conference of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Leaders on March 15 2020, when the coronavirus outbreak just started, it said.
“India stands in solidarity with the Government, Health Professionals and people of Nepal in this hour of challenge,” it added.
The Nepal foreign minister’s tweet thanking India for the medical assistance came days after he summoned the Indian Ambassador on Monday and handed over a diplomatic note to him to protest against the construction of the key road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand.
The 80-Km new road inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on last Friday is expected to help pilgrims visiting Kailash-Mansarovar in Tibet in China as it is around 90 kms from the Lipulekh pass.
On Friday, President Bidhya Bhandari, addressing Parliament, reiterated that Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulekh belong to Nepal and appropriate diplomatic measures will be adopted to resolve the existing issues.
India has said that the recently-inaugurated road section in Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand lies completely within its territory.
“The road follows the pre-existing route used by the pilgrims of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra,” spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava said in New Delhi last week. (PTI)
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