Kathmandu. Chief Secretary of Nepal government Shanker Das Bairagi informed via Twitter on Wednesday about his being infected with coronavirus. Majority of the government employees don’t follow the chief secretary’s line of thought, however.

The government doesn’t have the record of the corona infected employees but the lack of manpower in the workforce has negatively impacted the performance and the efficacy, says Shankar Nepal, joint secretary and spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers.

“At present, the government doesn’t have the proper statistics of its employees infected with COVID-19,” Nepal told DCNepal. “We can know about their health condition only after we are informed. If someone doesn’t want to inform about his/her infection, they can do so as they have their right to secrecy.”

Pathetic is the fact that the government has not been able to maintain the record of those who had themselves willingly informed about their corona infection status.

The lack of employees has affected the government tasks. Some are on leave as they have faced contact tracing while some are themselves infected and taking treatment. Adding to the problem is the large number of employees that has not joined the workforce after the Dashain holidays.

The number of COVID-19 cases has reached 162, 354 in Nepal till date, out of which 121, 824 have recovered whereas 887 have succumbed to the disease.