October 20: Public service has been partly affected due to the increasing rate of infection among government employees as well as staffers of the private sector. Employees of some government offices have already started working in different shifts to avoid overcrowding at the workplace.

Even private offices have been reporting rise in infection among workers and have opted for alternative means for providing their services.

Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts, which have emerged as hotspots within the Kathmandu Valley, have already stopped providing services except emergency services by issuing public notices. However, there isn’t any detail regarding the exact number government employees infected with the disease.

Employees of Banks and Financial Institutions have been more affected by the virus than workers of other sector. Even the officials of the banks’ regulatory body have been infected by the disease. A total of 104 employees of Nepal Rastra Bank have been reportedly infected with the disease, although most of them have already recovered.

Although such a large number of employees of the central bank have been infected, Nepal Rastra Bank has been providing its services in shift system. Some of the works nevertheless have been affected, informed Dr Gunakar Bhatta, spokesperson of NRB.

Altogether 84 staffers of the central bank including Deputy Governor Shiva Shrestha have already recovered from the disease.

Meanwhile, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and other offices under the department have been providing services without any interruption despite reporting infection among the staffers.

According to Durga Dutta Bhandari, chief of the Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the IRD, around 10 employees of the department have tested positive for coronavirus. The department has instructed the office heads to make arrangement for work schedule in such a way that the overall work is not affected. According to him, most of the works related to revenue collection are done online and therefore the work hasn’t been affected.

Meanwhile, the Financial Comptroller General’s Office has reported five cases if infection among its workers so far. Deputy Finance Comptroller General Gyanendra Poudel informed that they have kept the service uninterrupted by adopting alternative means.

Meanwhile, the National Planning Commission has also reported positive cases among some of its employees. However, the NPC has also not halted its services.

But the works of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and the Department of Roads have been reportedly affected due to infection among the workers. Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Basanta Nembang tested positive for coronavirus on Monday (October 19).