Kathmandu, May 16 -- The existing Infectious Disease Act gives the government the power to punish those flouting rules to stop the spread of communicable diseases. But the situation is serious, and many have advised us that we should declare a health emergency which would allow the state to deploy private hospitals to treat patients, and get all agencies of the state to concentrate solely on health. But so far, the existing laws are adequate to deal with the situation.

We set up the CCMC because the war against Covid needs various ministries of government to work together. The Health Ministry is the frontline agency, but it has to coordinate with the Home, Foreign, Finance, Tourism, Supplies and other ministries. If the CCMC had not been...