By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, May 14: Governments across South Asia must immediately address healthcare shortages and urgently strengthen their healthcare systems to respond to the rapid surge of COVID-19 cases in the region, said Amnesty International (AI).
With India and Nepal’s healthcare systems reaching breaking point, the human rights organisation expressed its concern over the lack of preparedness of other countries in the region for the virus’s latest and most deadly wave.
Extremely low vaccination rates across South Asia have also left the region highly vulnerable, with pressing action needed at the global level to ensure more equitable access to vaccines, AI said.
“The human catastrophe that is unfolding in India and Nepal should be a warning to other countries in the region to invest heavily in surge capacity for an emergency response.
The virus is spreading and transcending borders at a frightening speed and will continue to hit the region’s most marginalised populations hardest of all,” said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director.
South Asia, home to a quarter of the world’s population, is fast becoming the new global epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 6 May, India reported more than 400,000 new cases in one day, taking its total tally of confirmed cases to 21.5 million, though this is likely to be a significant underestimate. As the disease ravages India, several south Asian nations are also facing a resurgence of cases.
Nepal, which shares a porous border with India, has already started to experience a massive spike in infections.
According to WHO figures, daily cases increased 30-fold from 303 to 9,317, or an increase of 2,975%, between 12 April and 12 May. On Tuesday, Nepal recorded another 9,317 cases, bringing its total to 413,111.
With India stopping exports of oxygen, Nepal is struggling to find alternative supplies.
“We have seen how shortages of oxygen, hospital beds, human resources and essential medicines pushed the already under-resourced healthcare response of India over the edge. Now a similar worrying trend is emerging in Nepal,” said Mishra.
According to the World Bank, South Asia has 0.6 hospital beds per 100,000 people against an average of five in high-income countries.