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 In the last 24 hours there were 2,569 new cases and 26 deaths,
according to government data released on Wednesday. That takes the
Himalayan nation to a total of 202,329 cases and 1,174 deaths
overall.
Nearly half of all cases are reported in the capital Kathmandu and
its surrounding areas, home to 4 million of the country's 30 million
people.
A Reuters tally shows the number of daily infections in Nepal is
higher than anywhere in South Asia, except its vastly larger
neighbour India.
On Tuesday, Nepal said it would provide free tests and treatment in
a bid to encourage people to seek help in the low-income nation.
But health workers say the pandemic will only get worse as the
winter sets in.
"The government is not prepared to handle the catastrophic
situation. There are no community based isolation centres and ICU
beds are limited," said Aayas Luintel, a doctor who has been
treating coronavirus patients in Patan Hospital near Kathmandu.
Santa Kumar Das, of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, in
Kathmandu, said medics were seeing more severe cases of community
transmission after relatively mild cases from outside previously.
"In the community there are a variety of groups of all patients.
Like somebody might be suffering from chronic disease, like kidney
disease, lungs, liver (diseases). And these people are very
vulnerable to the corona infection," he said.
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Rabindra Pandey, a well-known public health expert, told Reuters the
government's figures may only represent a fraction of the real numbers due to
limited testing and monitoring.
"People are getting frustrated with the poor government response to the pandemic
and feeling helpless during their hour of crisis," he said.
A government spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Prime Minister K.P.Sharma Oli, who is locked in bitter infighting within his
Nepal Communist Party, has been criticised for being more preoccupied with
politics than the pandemic.
Ram Sharan Bajgain, an aide to Oli, said the prime minister was "actively
engaged in the fight against COVID-19 while facing the political problem".
In June, protesters demanding more tests clashed with police, who used water
cannon to break up the demonstrations.
(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Alasdair Pal and Alison Williams)
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