March 23.

Valley Municipality Forum’, a joint body of Kathmandu and Lalitpur metropolitan cities and 16 municipalities in the Kathmandu valley, has decided to launch a mega campaign against coronavirus. The forum called an emergency meeting on Sunday and made public a 10-point common concept against the infection today. The meeting decided for all municipalities in the valley to join hands against the virus, said Forum secretary Madan Sundar Shrestha, mayor of Madhyapurthimi municipality. “All 18 municipalities in the valley will jointly launch a campaign against the virus. Municipalities will spread awareness campaigns and manage quarantine zones in their respective area,” he said. Schools, hotels, guest houses and community buildings will be used as temporary quarantine homes. The meeting decided to make arrangements so as to ensure health workers attending to suspected at quarantine facilities are fully safe and send suspected persons to the designed health institutions. The federal government will be asked to build additional health institutions as per need and the respective municipality will provide necessary assistances. All municipalities will manage water and soaps at places in their respect area and market monitoring will be intensified. Black marketers face action and the federal government will be asked for intervention if required. The meeting has also appealed to the general public to acknowledge the notice and messages issued by the federal government and the World Health Organizations on COVID-19. The meeting has decided not to shut down the local units and the health centres. Other services besides essential services/supplies will be closed. Forum’s secretary Shrestha shared that meeting unveiled the common viewpoint on precautionary measures against the COVID-19 which included self-quarantine for the people’s representatives and general public, shutdown of the services other than the essential ones among others. The metropolis’s staffers will be kept on stand-by for them to come to the metropolis within an hour in case of emergency, according to the meeting. Forum’s vice-chair and Lalitpur metropolis mayor Chiri Babu Maharjan shared that all the local units in the Kathmandu Valley will move ahead forging a common viewpoint to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 spread and to fight this infection if its outbreak is reported. International Mayors’ Conference-2020 to be held The meeting has decided not to postpone or cancel the International Mayors’ Conference-2020 to be organized by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City in Kathmandu from October 7-10 this year. Although the preparation for the Conference has been halted due to the COVID-19, once the risk of COVID-19 is mitigated, the preparation for the same would be accelerated, said Forum’s secretary Shrestha. It was shared that correspondence has already been made to the 413 metropolitan cities’ mayors, national organizations of 19 countries and 10 international organizations regarding the Conference. The Conference aims to bring together mayors from all over the world to generate discourse on the recent trends in urban development, innovations, best practices and common challenges and solutions in several areas of city life.