December 6: The District Administration Office, Mustang has tightened the entry of visitors to Mustang, taking the risk of infection of a new variant of Covid-19, Omicron into account. Mustang had started receiving more domestic as well as foreign tourists after the end of the second wave of Covid-19 infection. According to Chief District Officer Netra Prasad Sharma, the decision of tightening the entry was made after the emerging cases of new Omicron variant in foreign countries as well as in Nepal.

According to him, entry of foreign citizens who do not have a PCR negative report within the last seven days or a vaccine card or antigen test report within the last 72 hours will not be allowed to enter the district. However, the meeting of the District Covid-19 Management Committee has decided that this condition will not apply to the permanent residents of Mustang and fully vaccinated staff, teachers and security personnel.

The restriction has come into force from midnight of December 1 and will remain in place till December 15, informed CDO Sharma.

“Besides, strict orders have been issued not to conduct various activities in the district,” said CDO Sharma, adding, “Most of the foreign as well as domestic tourists aspire to visit Mustang. At a time when new variants are spreading in different countries, entry to Mustang has been tightened to minimize the risk of infection of Omicron reaching Mustang via tourists.”

The committee meeting has also issued orders not to gather in large numbers at public places and not to organize religious and cultural fairs, celebrations, parties and open markets. Similarly, the order has prohibited the participation of more than 25 persons in case of conducting urgent rituals like marriage, the coming of age ceremony and funerals. (With inputs from RSS)