Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The current Covid-19 case in Nepal is increasingly worrying. This is because this week, the country’s daily infection cases have started to hit a record of over 9 thousand cases. This brings with it renewed fears that the Himalayan country may have the same fate as its neighbor, India
In the latest daily infection report data which fell on Thursday (6/5/2021), the country recorded 9,070 daily infections with 54 new deaths. With this data, the total infection in Nepal to date is 359,610 people and 3,475 deaths.
To make matters worse, Nepalese health experts say the reported cases do not represent the true prevalence of it, with contact tracing almost stopping in recent months. It is estimated that the actual cases are much larger than the figures released today.
“The only data released by the Nepalese government are those who are tested after developing symptoms of the disease,” Dr Binjwala Shrestha, assistant professor at the Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine, told Xinhua.
“If you do the test among everyone in the community, you can find infections several times higher than the cases currently reported.”
Nepal reports about 20 daily Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people, almost the same as India reported two weeks ago. The two countries have direct borders.
Citing government figures, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said last weekend that 44% of Nepal’s Covid-19 tests were positive.
“What is happening in India right now is a dire preview of Nepal’s future if we cannot contain this latest Covid spike which is claiming more lives every minute,” said Nepal Red Cross chairman, Dr Netra Prasad Timsina, in a statement quoted as saying. CNN.
In the capital Kathmandu, Sukraraj Hospital for Infectious and Tropical Diseases has increased the number of beds from 60 to 90, with all rooms, corridors and emergency departments occupied by infected people’s beds.
“We are not in a position to extend any further,” Dr Sagar Rajbhandari, director at the hospital, told the Kathmandu Post.
“We also don’t have the human resources, or the space to increase the number of beds.”
Doctors said the crisis could quickly get out of hand if authorities failed to take immediate action to flatten the curve because many health workers had become infected.
Not only the community, as many as 17 Mount Everest climbers who were in the country were reportedly sent home because they were infected with Covid-19. This has brought new fears that other climbers are also infected.
Meanwhile, Nepal’s head of government, Prime Minister Sharma Oli, has come under heavy criticism for his handling of the pandemic. Most recently, he has been criticized for his haphazard vaccination management, which leads to queues and crowds.
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