Nepal, April 8 -- Nepalis have spent two weeks under lockdown, and the government just announced an extension of one more week until April 15. As of now, the tally for Covid-19 cases has reached nine. With one case being locally transmitted, the country is now at the second stage of the coronavirus outbreak. Despite all these developments, the government's handling of the pandemic has not been up to the mark. On the one hand, ministers in the Oli government are facing allegations of corruption in the procurement of medical equipment required to fight the virus, and on the other, there's a lack of clarity as to how the provincial and local governments should have worked.

Much of the problem goes back to the government's reluctance to dece...