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.