Kathmandu, March 11
What happens if a small wave of coronavirus disease sputters in Kathmandu or any part of the country? Can Nepal’s health system handle the situation?
These are some of the questions that are being raised as the COVID-19 has made its way to 113 countries, killing close to 4,300 people and infecting over 118,000.
Nepal detected its first coronavirus patient around two months ago, who has since recovered. Since then blood samples and throat swabs of 445 people suspected to have contracted the disease have been collected but none has tested positive.
The government takes pride in referring to Nepal as a country with zero active coronavirus case. And it intends to prevent the disease from entering its territory in the coming days as well. To keep the country safe, the government has been screening passengers and checking their travel history at Tribhuvan International Airport and has halted issuing on-arrival visas to visitors from coronavirus hotspots. It has also asked Nepalis not to travel abroad unless it is urgent.
Despite these preventive measures, the possibility of the virus entering the country cannot be ruled out. And even if a few cases are detected, the number of infected people can multiply rapidly within a few days as seen in Iran, Italy and South Korea.
“If the infection spreads rapidly, we’ll see what needs to be done,” said Bikash Devkota, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population.
Many countries are pulling out all the stops to fight the spread of the disease. But Nepal still lacks a cohesive plan to deal with the possible threat, which can overload the health system and cause it to break apart.
Nepal has around 2,000 hospitals across the country, of which about 150 are public, and about 4,000 health centres run by the government.
But the government does not have consolidated figure on number of hospital beds that have been dedicated to isolate suspected coronavirus patients.
There are 155 beds in various hospitals in Kathmandu valley for isolation, according to the MoHP. “But provincial governments are currently working on it. A team has visited the provinces and has studied the situatio
Read the full story on The Himalayan Times
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