Nepal, Nov. 21 -- On December 31, 2019, the China country office of the World Health Organisation (WHO) received reports of a cluster of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan city, Hubei Province of China, involving 44 patients, of which 11 were in serious condition. Initially, the WHO and Chinese authorities stated that there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. However, it was later confirmed that the virus could spread through coughing, sneezing and respiratory droplets. Infection could then occur if a person touched these contaminated surfaces and subsequently touched their eyes, nose or mouth without proper hand hygiene.

In fact, on June 2, 2020, early in Nepal's introduction to the Covid-19 pandemic, I published an a...