One more succumbs to COVID-19 in Parsa

Parsa district in Province 2 has reported one more death from coronavirus today.

A 57-year-old male of Bahubari of Birgunj Metropolitan City-14 who had returned home from India a few days back died today at Narayani Vayodha Hospital, Birgunj in the wee hours today.

He fell ill immediately after arriving home and was hospitalised on April 11. His PCR report had come positive the same day, said District Administration Office, Parsa chief administrative officer Binay Kumar Shreewastav. He had breathing difficulty, high fever and severe pneumonia.

The district reports five deaths from coronavirus in the past week. The victims are four males and one female. With this, the number of people succumbing to the virus has reached 58, the District Administration Office, Parsa said.

Similarly in neighbouring Banke, 159 people have so far died of coronavirus infection. Of them, 61 are district residents and the remaining 98 are from outside who had arrived here for treatment, according to Covid-19 crisis management centre's resource persons Tej Oli.

Currently, there are 46 serious Covid-19 patients in Banke: 38 in Bheri Hospital Nepalgunj and eight in Teaching Hospital, Kohalpur. Among them, seven are on ventilator support.

At present, there are 886 active cases in the district. On Monday, among samples tested in three laboratories, 332 were tested positive for the virus. The infected include children, youths and old people alike, said resource person Oli.

Students, teachers, guardians and journalists have also been infected.

A 15-bed intensive care unit and a 102-bed corona special isolation ward at the Nepalgunj-based Bheri Hospital are packed with infected, the hospital's chief medical superintendent Dr Prakash Thapa said. Eighty-two patients are in the corona special ward.

There are 40 patients in the 15-bed ICU and beds meant for other patients have been used for Covid cases. The 40-bed pre-isolation bed meant for keeping the suspected patients is almost packed.

The entire health system is highly likely to be affected by the growing pressure of patients if the spread of the virus could not be stem on time.

The general public have been urged not to visit hospitals in general condition, not to leave home except for emergency, to compulsorily use mask, to observe social/physical distancing, to self-isolate in case of development of fever, according to Bheri Hospital Management Committee chair Pramod Dhital.

Those who tested positive for the virus have been recommended for taking abundant rest at home, keeping records of body temperature and intake of paracetamol in case of having normal fever.

Suspected and infected have been urged for seeking medical help if problems in breathing, uncontrolled fever and oxygen saturation come below 94 per cent.