Kathmandu, March 28
Coronavirus pandemic in Nepal 2020 and effect of lockdown in IT Professional Field and doing the task from home. The global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Nepal when its first case was confirmed on 24 January 2020. The patient only showed mild symptoms and had been discharged a week earlier with instructions to self-quarantine at home. Nepal had conducted around 800 tests as of 23 March 2020 and confirmed one additional case of the disease. This second case, confirmed on 23 March 2020, was of a 19-year-old woman who had recently returned to Kathmandu from France via Qatar. She is being treated in Teku hospital, Kathmandu. Her family has been put in quarantine at home. Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital in Teku, Kathmandu, commonly referred to as Teku Hospital, is the primary hospital for the treatment of the disease, handling all suspected cases. The third case of COVID-19 was confirmed on 25 March 2020. The fourth case of COVID-19 was confirmed on 27 March 2020 in Dhangadi District.
Nepal has poor health-care services and lacks medical infrastructure, staff, and equipment; it is considered poorly prepared to handle a large-scale disease outbreak. The government has taken various precautions to prevent the spread of disease. All districts including Kathmandu are in lock-down. Land borders with India as well as China have been closed, and all national and international flights suspended. All academic examinations were canceled and schools and colleges have been closed. Long-distance travel has been suspended domestically. Quarantine centers and temporary hospitals are being set up across the country. Nepal canceled its international promotional activities related to Visit Nepal Year 2020. Its economy is expected to be severely affected by the pandemic due to its effects on tourism, manufacturing, construction, and trade.
Internet slows down due to the Coronavirus threat!!
Due to the ongoing Corona pandemic, people stayed at home and are doing nothing but the internet. Staying at home is the safest thing you can do to protect yourself from the Covid-19 infection. That’s what people here in Nepal did, following the request of the government. Nepali companies are also considering their best effort to handle the coronavirus infection using IT tools. As schools, colleges, and now all offices except the emergency service providers have also shut down, people will be at home only. Due to which, internet usage has surged drastically with people seeking fresh information and professionals working from home.
It is not only the home internet traffic but the voice, data in mobile phones also increased remarkably. There are also these hoaxes/fake rumors which have some effect on telecom/internet traffic. We request you not to believe the unofficial news or rumors without proper verifications.
This surge in traffic has clogged the internet bandwidth that can be really felt in the peak hours. For the reason, you can take an example of road traffic here which can handle specific traffic or limit, after crossing which there will be a traffic jam. The network congestion is the same as the traffic jam which you can see in the highways for people flooding out of Kathmandu due to the fear of the virus.
According to Bhojraj Bhatta, Chairman of ISPAN, internet bandwidth usage has increased by 30% in this partial lockdown situation. The capacity of the internet has crossed its limit making it difficult for Internet service providers and telecom. As per ISP’s, the peak usage of the home internet comes from 8 pm to 11 pm which is also the same for cellular networks. So, the internet speed will be very slow mostly in those periods. People’s stay at home is more immense in the most affected countries in Europe due to the lockdown and preference of the internet for all. Whether it is for entertainment or communication or news or professional work, people need the internet, surging the demand and inviting network congestion.
Yesterday night when there was an issue with home internet, we had performed multiple tests during peak hours. That time, the home broadband speed was very slow while we found the mobile broadband was not much affected. All Nepali banks focus on digital finance transactions due to the effect of COVID-19 coronavirus.
Author: Er. Uttam Karki (Email: uttamakarkki18@gmail.com)
