KATHMANDU, Nov 29 (NNN-NEPALNEWS) – Nepal saw a decline in daily new cases of COVID-19, while the number of severe cases remained high, causing a strain on intensive care unit (ICU) beds, in hospitals.
For example, the ICU beds at the Kathmandu-based Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, have long been fully occupied.
“We have 22 ICU beds in the hospital and all have continuously remained occupied for months,” hospital director, Sagar Kumar Rajbhandari, said. “It is due to continuous rise in number of serious cases.”
In recent weeks, the Nepali government reported less daily cases than last month. In Oct, the Himalayan country reported a record daily spike of 5,743 cases.
Last week, the daily rise reduced to below 2,000. Yesterday, the government reported 1,380 confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing the total tally to 230,723. However, the number of severe cases admitted to hospitals has not dropped.
A public hospital, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, also continued to see its ICU beds fully used.
“We have 15 ICU beds and they continued to remain occupied for long,” Santa Kumar Das, chief of COVID-19 Management Committee at the hospital said.
The hospital therefore, rejected several requests from other hospitals for admission of serious cases, he said.
He said, serious cases were mostly found in people who suffered diseases related to kidney and liver problems.
According to Nepal’s health ministry, there are 354 COVID-19 patients being treated in ICUs nationwide, with 54 of them relying on the support of ventilators.
Yesterday, it reported 19 more deaths. In the last four days, there were additional 93 deaths in total.
“We see increased number of severe cases,” Roshan Pokharel, chief specialist at the health ministry, said.
Health officials also noted that, while the ICU beds in hospitals have remained packed, a large number of normal hospital beds, allocated for COVID-19, have been vacant, due to the reduced number of new cases.
“Around 50 percent normal hospital beds in Kathmandu remained vacant lately,” health ministry spokesperson, Jageshwor Gautam, said.
However, experts said, the lower figures did not necessarily mean that the COVID-19 situation was improving a lot.
“It may be due to people getting tested only after the patient develops symptoms,” said Pokharel. “Lately, there has not been random testing of people, based on risk analysis.”– NNN-NEPALNEWS
