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Latest COVID surge leading to another health emergency in Nepal

Active cases have well surpassed a thousand in Nepal, only administering vaccinations does not take away the risk of community infection.


Nepalnews
2022 Jul 18, 6:31, Kathmandu

As COVID -19 cases continue to rise in Nepal, neglecting precautionary measures can lead towards a country wide health emergency.

In the latest July surge, Nepal’s country wide active cases have crossed well over 1,000 and they continue to show an increasing trend. Nepal has so far reported more than 980,981 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Till now a total of 50,859,914 vaccine doses have been successfully administered in the country.

However globally, vaccines have not been shown to remove the risk of COVID surge completely.
 “Vaccines can help to a certain extent, but it is never enough and so the risk still extensively remains. We must continue the use of masks, maintain distance and practice good sanitation,” says medical practitioner based in Kathmandu, Dr. Ajay Kumar Shah. “With cases increasing widely in neighboring India, Nepal should be extra careful,” adds Dr Shah.

The latest surge in the number of infections is being caused by the sub-variants of Omicron, BA.4 and BA.5 which are now causing hospitalizations in Nepal and other countries. The WHO emergency committee on COVID - 19 met last week has concluded that the corona virus still remains a public health emergency on a global level. It has been estimated that the Omicron variant’s BA-5 subspecies accounted for 30% of all infections worldwide in the first half of the month, this July.

A health care worker prepares coronavirus tests in a lab at a COVID drive-thru testing center at Bergen Community College, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Paramus, New Jersey, U.S., December 3, 2020.  REUTERS/Brendan McDermid - RC2XFK9F4BOY
A health care worker prepares coronavirus tests in a lab at a COVID drive-thru testing center at Bergen Community College, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Paramus, New Jersey, U.S., December 3, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid - RC2XFK9F4BOY

The new surge in COVID cases is a global trend. In Japan alone, the number of detected infections have surpassed 90,000 in a single day. In the UK, COVID cases are increasing at an accelerating rate. Governments have issued warnings and have urged the public to follow COVID - 19 prevention strategies.

Recent media briefing by WHO, has made it clear that the pandemic is nowhere near over yet. Director general of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has expressed his concerns on the rising COVID -19 infections and death in the world.

“Observing the increasing trend of cases in Nepal and in other nations, deliberately neglecting COVID -19 precautionary measures will make the countries' COVID situation worse,” says medical practitioner Dr. Ajay Kumar Shah.

“ Surveillance has reduced significantly – including testing and sequencing – making it increasingly difficult to assess the impact of variants on transmission, disease characteristics, and the effectiveness of counter-measures,” said WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a recent media briefing.

“ The virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity, in terms of both hospitalization for acute cases and the expanding number of people with post covid-19 condition - often referred to as long-covid,” he added. WHO has urged governments to regularly review and adjust their COVID-19 response plans based on the current epidemiology. Similarly, masking and improved ventilation must be adopted.

Amidst other infectious diseases like Cholera spreading, Nepal is now entering a risky state. Hospitalization and people requiring intensive care are increasing day by day, if it continues the health system will soon be stressed out.


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