Public holiday in China to delay import of medical stuffs

1 May Kathmandu : With the public holidays ongoing in China at present, import of medical stuffs is to be delayed. Nepal Army (NA) is preparing to import medical stuffs from China to combat COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

According to NA sources, the importing bid was halted due to public holiday in China. China has announced public holiday from May 1 to 5. The public holiday will affect the process to clear the customs and manage transport for importing the medicines and other materials from China, authority said.

According to NA spokesperson Bigyan Dev Pande, two wide body aircrafts of Nepal Airlines will depart for China to import the goods possibly on Thursday or Friday.  The NA had forwarded the process to import medical stuffs from India and China via government to government (G to G) approach after Nepal government’s direction for the same.

According to Pandey, about 30 tonnes of medical stuffs would be imported from China via air routes while 312 tonnes via road.  The NA has paid a total of 18.4 million US dollars to China for these medical stuffs. Pandey however confirmed that the purchased stuffs have reached Guangzhou, China.