The world is heavily affected by Corona outbreak today. Every person globally has been afraid due to the massive spread of this virus that started in Wuhan, a city in Eastern China. It came into existence since December 31, 2019 and is rapidly broadening throughout the world. Thousands of people have been killed and more than half million people have been infected globally.

As ,The WHO had alerted Nepal about the possible risk of the spread of the virus, following the advice of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Nepal government enforced lockdown to contain the possible spread of corona virus. Nepal so far has reported nine cases of Covid-19, including one local transmission, which has taken the country into stage 2 of the pandemic. Given fears that local transmission will lead to the coronavirus spreading in the community, the government announced an extension to the lockdown till April 15.

In addition to the threat to public health, the economic and social disruption threatens the long-term livelihoods and well-being of millions. The labor market of Nepal is being deeply affected by the global virus pandemic. Hundreds of industries have been closed and thousands of workers became jobless. The situation of the workers from informal economy, many of whom are internal migrant workers and live far away from their families, have become more vulnerable .Thousands of workers have been stranded in different cities of Nepal following the implementation of the week-long nationwide lockdown.

ITUC-NAC and its affiliate union - ANTUF, GEFONT, NTUC are raising awareness among workers and community people against COVID-19 through social network, mobilizing media and lobbying with both government and employers to implement measures to protect workers from the impact of the crisis to their health and livelihood.

Apart from this, ANTUF, GEFONT and NTUC and their affiliates unions distributed food packs and supported workers to return their home.

Here are the press release issued by the ITUC-NAC.