Kathmandu, May 13
As coronavirus cases are surging in the country, hospitals designated for treatment of the disease have started facing shortage of beds, exposing a fault line in the fight against COVID-19.
Narayani Hospital in Parsa, which has now emerged as a coronavirus hotspot, for example, has allocated 70 of its beds for coronavirus treatment. All of them are now occupied. This is not a good sign for a district, which is home to almost 69 per cent of the 83 COVID-19 patients detected throughout the country yesterday.
Coronavirus Special Hospital in Butwal is facing the same problem. It has dedicated 36 of its beds for treatment of COVID-19. And all of them are occupied. So, a new coronavirus patient who was initially taken to the hospital yesterday was referred to Bhim Hospital in Rupandehi.
“We won’t be able to take in new coronavirus patients for now as all beds are occupied,” said Rudra Bhandari, medical officer at Lumbini Provincial Hospital, where the special hospital has been established. Although plans are afoot to add 200 more beds in the special hospital for treatment of COVID-19, it is not known when they will materialise.
“If necessary, we may have to stop other health services and use all our 260 beds in the hospital to treat coronavirus patients,” said Bishnu Gautam, the hospital’s health administrator. But this will affect other healthcare services, affecting patients who visit the hospital for treatment of other diseases.
Nepal has so far detected 243 coronavirus patients, of whom 35 have recovered while 208 are undergoing treatment in hospitals across the country. Most of those who are undergoing treatment are asymptomatic.
“If the government cannot add beds immediately, it should introduce a policy on management of asymptomatic patients so that beds could be allocated for severely ill patients,” said Madan Kumar Upadhyaya, medical superintendent at Narayani Hospital. “Otherwise, we’ll face difficulty in treating serious cases if we start getting them.”
The government has dedicated 3,209 hospital beds for coronavirus treatment. But they are scattered across the country in small numbers. Take the example of Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, the only hospital in the country established to treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19. It has 30 isolation beds and 20 intensive care unit beds to treat coronavirus patients, which many health experts say are not adequate if the number of COVID-19 cases surges in the country.
“We can deal with this problem of scarcity of hospital beds if asymptomatic coronavirus patients are treated at the community level by putting beds in places such as schools. We can then use hospital beds for treatment of severe cases,” said Prakash Bahadur Thapa, medical superintendent of Bheri Hospital, where 25 of the 35 beds dedicated for coronavirus treatment have been occupied.
The Ministry of Health and Population is aware of this problem. But it still has not taken measures to deal with this issue.
“We are thinking of adding hospital beds and are also considering using schools to treat coronavirus patients,” said Samir Kumar Adhikari, assistant spokesperson for the health ministry.
KATHMANDU: The price of the gold has dropped by Rs 700 per tola in the domestic market, today. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association (FeNeGoSiDA), the yellow metal was traded at Rs 91,800 per tola on Sunday. It was priced at Rs 92,500 per tola on Friday. Tej Read More...
KATHMANDU: The nationwide coronavirus death-toll has advanced to 1,959 with five more fatalities reported on Sunday. Globally, 2.02 million people have lost their lives to Covid-19 while more than 94.5 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus. Today, 266 new cases surfaced a Read More...
KATHMANDU: Nepal on Sunday reported 266 new cases of coronavirus infection from across the country. With this, the nationwide infection count has advanced to 267,322. Of the total cases, 91 are females while 175 are males. In the last 24 hours, 177 cases surfaced in Kathmandu valley. The capi Read More...
JAKARTA: At least 73 people have been killed after an earthquake struck Indonesia's West Sulawesi province on Friday, the disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said on Sunday, the latest in a string of disasters to hit the Southeast Asian country. More than 820 people were injured and over 27,800 Read More...
KATHMANDU: The three districts of Kathmandu valley reported as many as 177 new cases of the coronavirus infection on Sunday. This accounts for about 66.5% of the total 266 new infections recorded today. Kathmandu alone recorded 145 new cases while Lalitpur and Bhaktapur registered 23 and nine Read More...
KATHMANDU: Two more Nepalis living abroad died from coronavirus infection in the past week. According to Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA), one person passed away in London while the other one died in South Africa. According to the Health Committee under NRNA, with the latest fatalities, Read More...
SATARA/BHUBANESWAR: India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive hit a bump on the first day due to glitches in an app called Co-Win that is being used to coordinate the campaign, according to several officials involved in the immunisation programme. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched what his governmen Read More...
KATHMANDU: Weather has been partly to generally cloudy in some places of the country due to influence of low pressure system developed in northern Bangladesh and surrounding areas. Senior meteorologist at the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Nirajan Sapkota, shared that a completely clea Read More...