Hospital beds and ventilators- a new challenge in Nepal's fight against COVID-19

Hospital beds and ventilators- a new challenge in Nepal's fight against COVID-19

Nepal government allocated hospitals in Kathmandu valley are now running short of beds for COVID-19 patients, along with life-saving ventilators which stand low in number.

Slowdown in number of COVID-19 cases due to government induced lockdown was short-lived as cases have started to emerge at an alarming rate.

Due to the rapid spike in the new cases in Kathmandu valley, all the beds and intensive care units available at hospitals are already occupied for COVID-19 patients.

Kathmandu valley, which comprises Bhaktapur, Lalitpur and Kathmandu District, in total has reported 485 cases.

Flow of patients from outside Kathmandu valley is also increasing with ease of lockdown and people attempting for pre-lockdown schedule which has raised the infection rate in capital of the Himalayan Nation.

On a daily basis, about 1000 people returning back from districts outside Kathmandu pour into the hospital for tests but only 300 of them get tested as per the cap fixed on by the hospital administration.

Ministry of Health and Population on Friday released its plans and estimated a steady rise in cases in coming days.

The Ministry has planned to take the total number of ICU beds in the nation to 2, 600 and number of ventilators to 900.

In lack of proper bed, 68 infected ones on Friday were asked to keep themselves under home isolation while 25 only were admitted to the hospital.

According to the Health Ministry, about 30 percent of the confirmed infected ones are on loose.