Kathmandu, Aug. 21 -- Districts including those in Kathmandu Valley may have been under strict restrictions, but unless authorities fully utilise this period to increase tests and ensure contact tracing and pull out all the stops, it could be yet another opportunity squandered, public health experts say.

Multiple doctors the Post spoke to said that the virus has taken hold in the community and that an effective contact tracing is the only way to break the transmission chain.

"We all know a lockdown or restriction for an indefinite period is not possible. Nor is it a solution to the pandemic," said Dr Madhu Devkota, a professor at the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University. "We have to prepare."

According to Devkota, the past lockd...