Nepal likely to face second wave of COVID-19 infections

At a time when India and two other densely populated countries in South Asia—Pakistan and Bangladesh—have witnessed a surge in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, Nepal is likely to become a hotspot of the virus again.

India saw the largest number of infections, over 103,000 on a single day on Monday, and when a larger number of people are crossing the NepalIndia border, the risk of a high number of infections in Nepal has increased. The growing number of infections on Monday and Tuesday also showed that sooner or later Nepal will be in the grip of COVID-19 infections. On Monday, Nepal recorded 266 new cases while conducting 4,536 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction tests across the country. Also, four fatalities were reported on Monday. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health and Population confirmed 260 new cases of COVID-19, raising the nation's infection tally to 278,470. However, only 4,243 RealTime Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests were done on Tuesday. Of the new infections, eight each were reported in Province 1 and Province 2, 185 in Bagmati Province, 27 each in Gandaki Province, 30 in Lumbini Province and two in Karnali

Province. No case of novel coronavirus infection was reported from Sudurpaschim Province. Meanwhile, a total of 957 COVID-19 antigen tests were performed via six health desks set up at various border points in the last 24 hours. In the antigen tests, 26 people entering Nepal from India were found infected with the virus. On Monday, their number was 37.

The tests were conducted at Belahaiya Health Desk in Rupandehi, Gaddachauki Health Desk in Kanchanpur, Inarwa Health Desk in Parsa, Jamunaha Health Desk in Banke, Krishnanagar Health Desk in Kapilvastu and Trinagar Health Desk in Kanchanpur. Meanwhile, Minister for Health and Population Hridayesh Tripathi has ruled out the possibility of another lockdown though the cases of COVID-19 were growing constantly in the last few days.

“We do not want the country to go into another lockdown. The government is planning to adopt all the important precautionary measures in order to avoid the lockdown,” he said. Addressing the inauguration of the Nepal Health Conclave 2021 in Kathmandu on Tuesday, Minister Tripathi said the government had already started conducting the antigen test among Indiareturnees to check the spread of the pandemic. Minister Tripathi shared that the government had already worked for setting up isolation and quarantine facilities at the border transit points. On the occasion, Minister Tripathi said that the increasing COVID-19 cases in India had posed a risk of infection spike in Nepal as well. “But we do not need to panic; we need to follow all the health safety protocols.”

Nepal Health Conclave 2021 held in the participation of a wide range of panellists from the health and education sectors discussed Nepal’s health sector, plans, policy gaps, and health literacy.