KATHMANDU, May 10: Nepal has been witnessing an alarmingly high number of new infections of the coronavirus disease on a daily basis as the country is hit hard by the second wave of this viral infection starting mid-April.
More than 9,000 new cases and 50 fatalities were confirmed on Friday alone. According to the data released by the health ministry, there are at least 78,629 patients, who are yet to win their battle against this highly contagious disease.
Reports from the country’s capital, districts in the south-western part -- Banke and Rupandehi are disturbing enough as a number of patients are dying due to lack of adequate bed facilities and life-saving oxygen supplies. Rupandehi district alone added 730 patients on Friday alone.
Teku Hospital runs out of COVID-19 beds, patients being treated...
Hospitals say that they have run out of their capacity to treat the COVID-19 patients. Most hospitals are treating patients along the corridors or in the open spaces as beds are choke-full.
When this photojournalist reached the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Diseases Hospital in Kathamndu’s Teku on Friday afternoon, a COVID-19 patient with oxygen support in an ambulance, was waiting for an ICU bed to fall vacant. The ambulance was parked just outside the emergency ward of the hospital.
Similarly, an elderly patient was lying on a make-shift bed set up along the corridor of the hospital as the hospital was already short of beds.
The medical and non-medical staff of the country’s only infectious disease hospital were found busy treating and tending patients and making necessary arrangements of medical gears. In this photo pictured on Friday afternoon, a hospital staffer is seen fixing the pipeline that supplies oxygen towards the emergency ward.
The local administrations in 61 districts including those three in the Kathmandu Valley have imposed prohibitory orders in order to stem the transmission chain of the virus. The Valley residents, who have already witnessed the ninth day of the prohibitory orders, hope to see a drop in new cases and tragedies caused by the disease.
