The number of positive cases has been going up gradually in Nepal. Ever since the Omicron variant was detected in December last year, people seem to be taking it more lightly than ever, as WHO announced it to be non-fatal. However, looking at the growth in the number of infected people, we may not be far from a third wave of the pandemic even though there aren’t many hospitalization cases. 

1. How long do we have before the third wave of the pandemic fully hits Nepal?

Dr. Manisha Rawal, Director of Sukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital: According to the rise of Covid-19 cases in the last 4-5 days, it can be seen that within 1-2 weeks from now, we will be seeing a surge of Covid-19 patients being admitted in hospitals. Having served for more than two years during this Covid pandemic, we were able to map out a projection about two weeks ago that we might be seeing ten to twelve thousand cases per day by the end of January or the second week of Magh. However, we haven’t seen many Covid cases that need hospitalization even during the rise in cases since the past few days. According to several studies done by WHO and CDC, the new Omicron variant is more contagious than previous variants; however, they are non-fatal with lesser symptoms.