COVID-19 cases surge alarmingly, govt looks not serious to control its spread

The cases of COVID-19 in Nepal have increased three times within a week, signalling a further danger in the days to come.

The government that took no measure to prevent its spread in the initial days, especially after the daily cases crossed over 200,000 in India decided to close academic institutions in the city areas. The cabinet meeting held on Monday has decided to conduct virtual classes of all the schools and colleges until 14 May by closing all the schools in the city areas of different parts of the country.

But the government measure came too late as the virus has already reached the community from schools.

The Ministry of Health and Population on Tuesday confirmed 1,667 new cases of COVID-19, taking the nation's novel coronavirus tally to 287,567.

On Tuesday, 1,667 new infections were recorded in 8,055 RT-PCR tests, and 69 cases were recorded via 683 antigen tests done at health desks in various border points.

Likewise, 11 deaths from the virus were recorded in 24 hours on Tuesday, taking the national COVID-19 death toll to 3,102.

Of the new infections, 101 were recorded in Province 1; 84 in Province 2; 835 in Bagmati Province; 27 in Gandaki Province; 541 in Lumbini Province; 17 in Karnali Province and 62 in Sudurpaschim Province, which indicates that the virus has spread across the country over a week.

Three districts, including Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Banke currently have more than 500 active cases. Currently, there are 8,659 active cases of COVID-19 across the nation, and of them, 7,074 are placed in home isolation while 685 are receiving treatment in various institutional isolations.

Of the active patients, 160 are admitted to the ICU and 45 are receiving treatment with ventilator support as of Tuesday.

Meanwhile, 39 students of Janatadhan Secondary School, Baglung Municipality-2, in Baglung district have been found infected with SARS-CoV-2.