Kathmandu, May 5 -- Kaski has become the latest in the list of districts to be placed under strict lockdown following the surge in new variant of SARS-CoV-2 as Nepal battles the devastating second wave of the pandemic.

Following the decision in place until 14 May, Nepal's tourist city of Pokhara bore a look of a ghost town: fishermen have abandoned their boats, Lakeside is void of tourists and locals are keeping away from outdoors.

The positivity rate in Gandaki province was close to 50% with 429 new cases in the last 24 hours. With this, total number of active cases has now soared to 2,546, of which 2,354 are in home isolation.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Nepali Times....