More than 1,000 people are entering Nepal every day from the two main checkpoints in the Sudurpashchim, Gauriphanta and Gaddachauki border in Kanchanpur. COVID-19 has been detected among people entering Nepal from those border points. The risk of the spread of COVID-19 infection in the communities in Sudurpashchim Province has increased as migrant workers from the Indian cities are entering Nepal without proper health screening at the border.

When the COVID-19 infection started appearing in India last year, tens of thousands of Nepali migrant Nepali workers had returned home due to fear. After the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nepal, the government closed the international border on March 24 last year. Nepalis returning home from various cities in India stayed in the quarantine of the Indian market near the border for more than two months.

After the government authorities allowed Nepalis living in India to enter Nepal, there was a crowd of people who wanted to enter Nepal to go to their homes. Those who returned home on the pretext of dying on their own land could not find employment in the country and had difficulty in feeding their children. They left the country for employment after that. A new variant of coronavirus has appeared in India and the rapid transmission has forced Nepalis to return to Nepal.

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