Third wave of COVID-19 has begun in Nepal: health ministry officials

KATHMANDU, August 5: The third wave of COVID-19 has begun in Nepal, according to health experts and officials at the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP). 

Both the COVID-19 infection rate and the number of new cases have increased in recent days, the country has been hit by the third wave, said Dr Sameer Kumar Adhikari, joint-spokesperson at the MoHP.

Dr Anup Bastola, director at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Diseases Hospital at Teku, also maintained that the country is on the track of witnessing the third wave of COVID-19. “Negligence in COVID-19 safety protocols among the general public seems to have triggered the third wave in the country.”

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The health ministry has urged all those suspicious about COVID-19 infection to get tested as soon as possible and help control the disease.

Nepal on Wednesday recorded the highest single-day spike of 4,107 new cases of COVID-19  after the government relaxed the prohibitory orders a few weeks ago. 

According to the health ministry, Nepal also recorded 1,535 recoveries and 35 deaths due to COVID-19 on Wednesday. With this, Nepal’s COVID-19 casetally has reached 769,922 including 661,651 recoveries and 9,957 deaths.

A total of 11,354 PCR tests and 4,994 antigen tests were conducted on Wednesday. Of them, 2,975 PCR and 1,132 antigen tests turned out to be positive for COVID-19, according to the MoHP. The country’s COVID-19 infection rate surged to 26 percent.

Nepal has been witnessing a sharp rise in new COVID-19 cases for the past three weeks.

Likewise, the Kathmandu Valley recorded 1,279 new cases of COVID-19 on the same day. Of them, 908 were detected in Kathmandu, 165 in Bhaktapur and 206 in Lalitpur districts. Compared to data from the past three weeks, the number of COVID-19 cases in the valley has tripled.

There are currently 30,270 people in home isolation, 3,194 in institutional isolation, 714 in ICU’s and 156 on ventilators.

There are currently 16 districts across the country with more than 500 active cases of COVID-19.