Surging caseloads, spiking mortality rates, and supply shortages threaten one of India’s neighbouring nations.
By Ben Weissenbach
13 May 2021, 12:35 BST
Nepalese paramedics treat a COVID-19 patient outside an emergency ward of a government run hospital in Kathmandu.
Photograph by Niranjan Shrestha, AP Images
Just before midnight on Sunday, Anup Bastola chief consultant for Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population, lead doctor at Sukraraj Hospital in Kathmandu, and the man who identified Nepal’s first-ever COVID-19 patient a year ago felt, for the first time in his career, completely helpless.
Sukraraj transformed on Sunday from an overloaded hospital into a nightmare of triage. Bastola arrived home from duty only to learn that six more patients were failing six more for whom he could not find ventilators or ICU beds.
COVID-19 spirals out of control in Nepal: ‘Every emergency room is full now’
Surging caseloads, spiking mortality rates, and supply shortages threaten one of India’s neighboring nations.
ByBen Weissenbach
Email
Just before midnight on Sunday, Anup Bastola chief consultant for Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population, lead doctor at Sukraraj Hospital in Kathmandu, and the man who identified Nepal’s first-ever COVID-19 patient a year ago felt, for the first time in his career, completely helpless.
Sukraraj transformed Sunday from an overloaded hospital into a nightmare of triage. Bastola arrived home from duty only to learn that six more patients were failing six more for whom he could not find ventilators or ICU beds.