Kathmandu, Jan. 25: At a time when the country is grappling with the third wave of COVID-19 dominated by Omicron, a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus, most of the health workers are contracting the virus.
That has led many doctors and health workers across the country to isolation, keeping them out of duty.

As many of its health workers are infected with the disease, the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku, has halted its ongoing vaccination services. According to Dr. Manisha Rawal, director of the hospital, the vaccination service was halted as many health workers got infected.

The hospital overwhelmed by people receiving vaccine against COVID-19 had heightened the risk of virus’s spread among health care providers, said Dr. Rawal.
According to Dr. Rawal, 55 health workers of the hospital are infected as of today. “We suspended the vaccination service to stem the spread and minimise human resource crunch to treat patients,” she added.

Around 3,000-3,500 people visit the hospital to get vaccinated against the disease daily.
In Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), 250 doctors and nurses are infected with COVID-19 as of today.

According to Dr. Niraj Bam, COVID-19 focal person at the hospital, the services of respiratory and nephrology wards were halted due to a shortage of human resources. Among 36 beds at High Dependency Unit, 11 were not utilised due to lack of nurses, said Dr. Bam.

“Last week was so hard for us, we had to refer patients to COVID Unified Hospital, but this week most of the health workers are back to work. We have asked the infected ones to resume duty after spending seven days in isolation,” said Dr. Bam.
In a silver lining, he added that the shortage of healthcare workers won’t persist, as the isolation period has been reduced.

According to Dr. Bhupendra Basnet, chief executive officer at COVID-19 Unified Central Hospital (Bir Hospital), 220 health workers, including doctors and nurses, are infected with the coronavirus. The hospital has 160 COVID-19 patients as of today.

“Of the infected, 120 are nurses. This has made it harder for us to deliver service, but we are continuing to provide services in all the wards,” said Dr. Basnet.
The infected health workers are also returning to work after seven to 10 days of isolation, he added.

To stave off the possible crunch of human resources, the Ministry of Health and Population has already directed all the hospitals to extend the tenure of health workers working on contract basis by a maximum of three months from mid-January as per the requirement of the hospital. Moreover, the government has vowed to provide incentives to health care providers working as frontliners during the time of pandemic.