Kathmandu, Sept. 17 -- UPDATE: The Kathmandu District administration on Thursday decided to put off the reopening of in-person classes, citing that new Covid-19 cases have not dropped as expected.

On 5 September, for the first time in nearly five months, there were less than a thousand daily new Covid-19 cases. Since then, new infections per day have mostly stayed below 1,500.

The rate of infection is also dropping below 9%, and schools in Kathmandu which have remained closed for nearly two years arescheduled to reopenrom next week. Cinema halls, bars and clubs are already up and running as if it is all over.

In fact, most Nepalis seem to think the pandemic is over.But it is not.The infection rate is still several times higher than mos...