Covid-19 surges in Nepal

 In Nepal, where hospital beds are few, thousands of Covid-19 patients just stay home — until they can’t.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/11/world/covid-coronavirus#in-nepal-where-hospital-beds-are-few-thousands-of-covid-19-patients-just-stay-home-until-they-cant

Nepal, a country of 30 million people sandwiched between India and China, is enmeshed in a public health crisis.

Coronavirus infections have surpassed 100,000, about a third of which are currently active. That is a modest caseload compared with neighboring India, which is second the world in total infections, but more than the 94,000 cases reported in Nepal’s other neighbor of more than a billion people, China, where the virus first emerged late last year.

Cases in Nepal are increasing sharply, with a record 5,008 new infections recorded on Saturday. The Health Ministry counts fewer than 400 patients in intensive care, but even that has left I.C.U.s overflowing. Frontline doctors have also been infected, raising fears that health institutions’ staffing will be hollowed out.

To avoid system collapse, the government has asked Covid-19 patients to stay in home isolation — with the possibility of imprisonment if they venture outside — and to go to hospitals only if their condition turns critical. Almost 16,000 infected patients are in home isolation, according to the Health Ministry, and more than 11,000 others are in institutional isolation or hospitals.

But by the time infected people become seriously ill, it may be too late. Dr. Rabindra Pandey, a public health expert, said that some patients had died in ambulances while searching for I.C.U. beds, others in home isolation, and still others while waiting for I.C.U. beds in isolation wards. More than 600 people have died in Nepal since the pandemic began, a relatively low death rate but one that is likely to rise since the explosion in cases was so recent.

“We are already in critical condition in terms of controlling coronavirus,” Dr. Pandey said. “But darker days are yet to come.”

On Sunday, health experts warned that if the virus continued to spread in the countryside it would be impossible for the health care system to handle the influx of cases. Most facilities are in Kathmandu, the capital, which is the center of the country’s outbreak.

The situation has raised alarm about two major approaching festivals. During Dashain, a 15-day Hindu and Buddhist festival that takes place later this month, Nepalis living abroad and the country’s urbanites normally travel to villages in the mountains and plains to see relatives. Similar celebrations take place during Tihar, a five-day Hindu festival that is akin to the Diwali festival of lights in India and that falls next month.

The Health Ministry has urged Nepalis not to go out for Dashain shopping and to keep their distance from older people, even if it means canceling holiday plans.

In other global developments:

·         Hanan Ashrawi, a high-ranking Palestine Liberation Organization official and negotiator, tested positive for Covid-19, her office announced on Sunday. Ms. Ashrawi, 74, tested positive days after Saeb Erekat, another veteran Palestinian negotiator, was confirmed to have contracted the virus.

·         India edged close to overtaking the United States in total virus cases, passing the seven-million mark. And Brazil became the second country, also after the U.S., to record more than 150,000 deaths.

·         South Korea said on Sunday that it was easing social-distancing restrictions, lifting a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people indoors and more than 100 outdoors. Under the new guidelines, which take effect on Monday, high-risk facilities like nightclubs, bars, karaoke parlors and buffet restaurants can open for business and spectators will be allowed into sports stadiums. South Korea tightened restrictions in August amid a second wave of infections but appears to have brought the outbreak under control, with daily new cases mostly down to double digits in the past two weeks.

·         A curfew in Berlin closed bars and restaurants at 11 p.m. on Saturday, curbing the German capital’s renowned nightlife. Berlin was following in the footsteps of Frankfurt, where a curfew had already been imposed, but starting an hour earlier.

·         Lebanon will close bars and nightclubs indefinitely to help contain the virus, Reuters reported. The virus has killed more than 450 people in a country reeling from financial crisis and an explosion in Beirut two months ago.

— Bhadra Sharma and Sameer Yasir