Parliamentarians in the National Assembly, the Upper House of the Federal Parliament, have urged the government to manage COVID vaccines for all citizens as soon as possible.
Speaking at zero hour of the session on Thursday, lawmakers expressed concern about the increasing risk of the spread of COVID infection as people had started to gather in crowds after the easing of the prohibitory orders, and called for managing vaccines to all at the earliest in such a situation.
Parliamentarian Udaya Sharma Poudel said, “Despite having rules, sanitizers have not been kept in public vehicles.”
Similarly, speaking in the special time, lawmaker Ramesh Jung Rayamajhi said the government should prioritize vaccinating people across the country.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Population has urged all to be cautious realizing the possible outbreak of the third wave of COVID-19.
Ministry Joint Spokesperson Samir Kumar Adhikari said that the coronavirus infection rate was on the rise with the loosening of lockdown in the country at present and the third wave may occur.
He has urged the hospitals and concerned agencies and bodies to be alert and keep emergency and needed equipment, including oxygen cylinders, beds, and medical items in ready position.
Dr Adhikari said that the third wave was more risky to children therefore ICU and emergency child wards should be upgraded and kept in full preparedness realizing the possible outbreak of threats.
According to the ministry, 724,455 individuals have been infected by the deadly virus and 9,637 have died of the infection till date in the country.
Similarly, 636,402 infected persons have recovered so far.
The Health Ministry on Thursday confirmed 1,855 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the nationwide tally to 674,726.
In addition, 859 cases were detected from antigen tests in the past 24 hours. Of the total 12,829 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, 9,122 were Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) while 3,707 were antigen tests.
The infection rate from the total PCR tests is 21 per cent, meaning that the risk is still high.
The active COVID-19 caseload across the nation reached 27,375 on Thursday. Of the active cases, 2,759 patients are admitted to various health facilities while the remaining 24,616 are in home isolation.
The country also reported 24 deaths related to the disease on Thursday, taking the total death toll to 9,661.
Lately, vaccination centers are at the risk of becoming new hotspots for COVID-19 as they are crowded beyond control because of gross management by authorities concerned.
As many as 3,308,730 people have been vaccinated with the first dose and 1,281,240 with both doses so far in the country.
Nepal on Thursday received additional 800,000 doses of Vero Cell vaccines from China.
The government has purchased 4 million doses of the vaccines from China on government-to-government model.
Earlier, over 800,000 doses of the vaccines were brought from Beijing as per the purchase agreement and remaining 2.4 million doses will be brought in the next two cargo flights.
