COVID-19 virtually beaten but experts still stress caution


Although COVID-19 cases have significantly declined in Nepal, with the increase in cases of COVID-19 infection and deaths in neighbour country China, panic about the recurrence of the pandemic has gripped the wider world.

According to Chinese media CGTN, the number of COVID-19 infections in China is increasing daily with 3,822 cases of COVID-19 on Sunday. Among them, 3,748 people contracted the infection from locals, while the remaining 74 people contracted the infection from foreigners.

So far, 342,488 asymptomatic patients are under medical observation.

The first case of COVID-19 was detected on December 30, 2019, in Wuhan province of China. After that, various countries across the world, including Nepal, are still being affected by the COVID-19 infection.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is still a possibility of the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, so precautions against it should be taken seriously.

So far, out of 194 member countries of the WHO, only 58 countries have met the goal of providing vaccinations to 70 percent of their citizens.

Meanwhile, Nepal has witnessed a sudden decline in COVID-19 cases in the last few days. The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) on Tuesday recorded only one case of COVID-19 among 437 RT-PCR tests.

The government is doing only passive surveillance for a long time due to which the COVID cases are declining, said Dr. Baburam Marasini, a public health expert.

Many have started neglecting basic COVID-19 safety measures including wearing face masks, hand washing and maintaining social distancing. As China is enforcing strict lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, we may also face the situation if proper precautionary methods are not adopted on time, warned Dr. Marasini.

As per the latest update of the MoHP, 1,153,093 people have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic nearly three years ago while 12,019 deaths have been reported from COVID-19.