[In Washington on Wednesday,
several members of Congress expressed alarm about the situation and an official
with the U.S. Agency for International Development said Nepal is now a
“priority” for coronavirus-related aid, although there was no public
indication of how soon it would materialize.]
But with vaccine programs
languishing and thousands of workers returning from neighboring, hard-hit
India, cases shot up to more than 2,000 a day in late April. By last week, that
figure had soared to more than 8,000.
The surge has rapidly overwhelmed
hospitals and depleted medical supplies in the Himalayan country of
30 million. Online covid-19 support groups, flooded with posts as people
seek information, advice and solace, have become medical and emotional
lifelines for a frightened, isolated population that has few other places to
turn.
“We have not been able to admit
even the critical patients,” Anup Subedee, director of the Hospital for
Advanced Medicine and Surgery in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, said in a
telephone interview Wednesday. He said the staff could do little more than
prescribe steroids and painkillers.
Last week, health officials said
20,000 oxygen cylinders had been ordered from abroad, but many private
hospitals announced that because of the lack of oxygen, they could not admit
any more patients.
[Their
parents were dying of covid in India. For 12 frantic days, two sisters tried to
save them.]
The government of Prime Minister
K.P. Sharma Oli warned this week that new infections could continue to rise
while the country's medical system is collapsing under the strain. Writing in the Guardian on Monday, Oli described
the pandemic as an "overwhelming burden" and appealed for
international help.
The Health Ministry spokesman in
Nepal, Samir Kumar Adhikari, echoed Oli’s alarm Thursday, saying that the
situation is “currently out of control” and that hospitals face a “deepening
crisis” that is likely to get worse in the coming weeks.
In Washington on Wednesday, several
members of Congress expressed alarm about the situation and an official with
the U.S. Agency for International Development said Nepal is now a “priority”
for coronavirus-related aid, although there was no public
indication of how soon it would materialize.
The government has imposed a
nationwide shutdown, banned all international flights and declared a strict
size limit on public gatherings. But the shutdown came after thousands of
migrant workers returned from India, which has the highest levels of
coronavirus infection and death in the world.
The flurry of measures did little
to strengthen public confidence in the government, which has been roiled by
partisan rivalries and accused of being caught off-guard by the new surge. On
Monday, Oli lost a parliamentary vote of confidence and is
now serving in a caretaker role while several parties joust for power.
The total number of deaths has
remained low, at about 4,200. Since the pandemic began, more than 422,000
Nepalis have been infected and about 316,000 have recovered. But with hospitals
running out of oxygen, supplies, medicine and beds, officials said the death
rate could also rise.
[Covid
reached Everest base camp. Now climbers are trying to prevent its spread amid a
record season.]
Subedee, the hospital director,
said unless the government begins setting up oxygen production plants soon,
health facilities will be merely “trying to wipe the floor as water runs down
from the tap. This situation is going to get worse in coming weeks.”
One night this week, the emergency
room at Bir Hospital in the capital was crammed with people anxiously waiting
for treatment. Every bed was occupied, and overflow patients and visitors
crowded together on the floor, ready to grab any vacant bed.
The hospital had announced it could
not provide oxygen, and a few visitors hauled in cylinders from outside. Others
clung to cellphones, hoping to locate an oxygen source. One man frantically
tried to find a lab that would give his ailing father an emergency coronavirus
test. An elderly man hunched on the floor in pain for many minutes until a
guard brought him a wheelchair.
Nanu Bhattarai, 54, a teacher in
the capital, said her father had tested positive and was suffering from a
fever, weakness and breathing difficulties but had been turned away from
several hospitals in the past week. “We found a bed at one, but there was no
oxygen,” she said.
The country’s vaccination rate is
also very low; only about 7.2 percent of the populace has received one
shot. The government is urgently seeking international vaccine donations, but
it may be too far behind in the prevention process to make much difference in
the near future.
Many in Nepal claim that the
government let down its guard after the first wave of coronavirus subsided.
During the lull, people began attending mass religious events and weddings.
Some officials traveled to India for a large Hindu festival, held in stages
between January and April, that was later identified as a spreader of the virus.
In his appeal for help this week,
Oli’s tone was grave. He said his government was doing its best to “save people
from this lethal enemy” and was in dire need of vaccine, oxygen and equipment.
But before the crisis erupted, he was quoted as saying people could resist the
virus by gargling with guava leaves. His government was also criticized for
allowing high mountain treks to continue,
preserving an iconic national attraction at the risk of spreading the virus
further.
Experts said the situation is
especially acute in rural areas bordering India, where health facilities are
limited and vaccination rates are extremely low. A network of humanitarian
groups is providing some emergency assistance, but Kanchan Jha, the director of
one group, called the conditions “heartbreaking.”
“There are a lot of unreported
cases in border towns, and the hospitals can’t handle the heavy influx of
patients,” he said in a phone interview. “Rich people in the capital can
evacuate if needed, but here poor people have nowhere to go. Infected families
are stuck in home isolation.”
Suswopna Rimal, 31, created a
covid-19 support group on Facebook after she and her husband recovered from
mild cases last year. She found there was still much social stigma about
discussing the disease and wanted to give people a place to express their
concerns.
“We survived the first wave, but we
felt a void. There was fake information on social media, and it created fear,”
she said from Kathmandu. “People needed advice, but there was a lot they
couldn’t discuss. I wanted them to have scientific information and feel
comfortable.”
Today, the site has
2.8 million members and is filled with queries, suggestions, condolence
posts with tearful emoji and videos from doctors explaining how to improve
breathing or avoid suspicious cures. It offers lists of oxygen providers,
coronavirus test labs and ambulance services. Among the upcoming topics — why
to say no to big summer weddings this season.
Ankit Adhikari in Kathmandu
contributed to this report.