By Arpana Adhikari
Kathmandu, Aug. 8: At a time when Nepal’s coronavirus caseload is rising and experts are expressing worries about the worsening situation, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ishwor Pokhrel has said that in an absolute term Nepal is ramping up its preparations to fight the COVID-19.
“Nepal stands on a better footing because of the valuable measures taken to control the COVID-19, and the government has been intensifying its preparations to handle the situation arising out of the COVID-19 outbreak, Deputy Prime Minister Pokhrel said in an interview to this daily on Friday.
Nepal has expanded the scope of the COVID-19 testing, he said, adding that 32 government and six private laboratories are now conducting the COVID-19 tests.
“Today, we are conducting COVID-19 tests at 32 labs across the country when we had just one lab in the beginning of the pandemic,” he said.
The government labs have now a capacity to test 18,500 samples a day and the private labs can test more than 3500 samples a day, it means the daily testing capacity has exceeded 22,000, he said.
“We have 2,600 ICU beds and 900 ventilators across the country. The government has added 250 COVID-19 dedicated ICU beds and preparations are going on to add 240 ICU beds,” he added.
According to him, there are 36 dedicated COVID-19 hub hospitals and 115 dedicated COVID-19 health clinics. He further added that asymptomatic COVID-19 patients aged below 60 years and those who had not developed any serious health problems could stay at home isolation under the close observation of the local health workers. The government has further expanded the criteria of the PCR tests, he said.
“To intensify the contact tracing, the government has formed 1,075 teams and deployed them throughout the country, one team in each Gaunpalika, two in each municipality, three in each sub-metropolitan city and five in each metropolitan city,” he added.
DPM Pokhrel added the government had already begun plasma therapy to treat critical patients to save their lives.
To control and prevent the COVID-19, the Ministry of Health and Population has already released 41 documents, including policies, directives, protocol and standards through one-door system.
“The government has also issued the public health protocol with a formula of SMS (social distancing, mask and sanitising) to contain the virus, and the government would enforce this protocol,” he added.
In addition, the government has prepared expenditure standards for the COVID-19 treatment. As per the standards, those who are in home isolation will get Rs. 200 and those in isolation centre will get Rs. 2,000 as daily allowance.
Similarly, the patients with medium symptoms undergoing treatment in hospital will get Rs. 3,500, those with medium critical case will get Rs. 7,000 and those who need ICU treatments Rs. 15,000 a day.
Likewise, the government has fixed Rs. 5,500 for PCR test in the designated private lab, he added.
According to DPM Pokhrel, the government has already released Rs.380 million to all seven States to add extra beds in isolation centres.
When asked about possibility of further lockdown, he said the government imposed the nationwide lockdown on March 24 when the entire world was terrified by the pandemic.
Considering the world experience in the COVID-19 response, the government imposed the lockdown thinking that it was the best way to contain the virus.
“But the government has now realised that the government should not have enforced the nationwide lockdown, instead it should have done in the selective areas, not restricting the internal movements.”
But now the government is not in favour of imposing another round of nationwide lockdown, he said, “Lockdown will jeopardise the economy while stronger economy is required to fight against the pandemic.”