Nepal: Oxygen, vaccines and essential medical supplies urgently needed amid devastating Covid-19 wave

Politicians in Nepal must put their differences aside and take decisive action in the coming weeks to save thousands of lives as the country grapples with a deadly second wave of coronavirus, Amnesty International said in a new briefing published today. The international community.

While Nepal’s leaders have been embroiled in infighting that has led to the dissolution of the country’s parliament twice in the past five months, the Covid-19 virus has broken out. Nepal currently has one of the highest infection rates in the world, and in April, the country’s health ministry projected an additional 300,000 cases by July. Nepal’s infrastructure is already creaking under the current burden, with severe shortages of oxygen, intensive care beds, personal protective equipment and vaccines.

According to a United Nations report released on May 14, Nepal had the highest “effective reproduction rate” and the highest positive test rate of any country in the world. The current crisis is exacerbated by a mutated virus that leads to higher levels of mortality, and additional complications such as pneumonia, which leads to increased demand for oxygen. The lack of Covid-19 vaccines has also hampered the country’s efforts to reduce the burden on the health system and limit the spread of the virus.

The country’s healthcare system is sluggish, hospitals reach capacity, and overworked and desperately under-resourced staff unable to keep up with massive demand.

Yamini Mishra, Asia Pacific Director at Amnesty International

“We are currently witnessing the same desperate situation happening in Nepal that we have seen in India in recent months. The country’s health care system is sluggish, hospitals are reaching capacity and staff are unable to make themselves available,” said Yamini Mishra, Asia Pacific Director at Amnesty International. Overworked, desperately under-resourced, they can’t keep up with massive demand.

“For now, to save thousands of lives, the Nepalese authorities must prioritize the procurement and provision of oxygen, which has so far been put on hold due to inaction and bureaucratic wrangling. For its part, the international community must provide oxygen supplies, ventilators, vaccines and other life-saving products. Urgently “.

The briefing, The Struggle to Breathe: The Second Wave of Covid-19 in Nepal, examines the devastating impact of the virus on the country’s underfunded health system and the consequences of drug and equipment shortages on hospital staff and Covid-19 patients. The brief also addresses the insufficient response to date by the Nepalese authorities, and the particularly harsh impact of the pandemic on the country’s most marginalized.

Covid-19 has spread rapidly across Nepal in recent months and is currently spreading to all of its seven districts. While public health experts believe the number of deaths is underestimated, as of June 7, 7,990 deaths due to Covid-19 have been recorded in Nepal according to government figures, with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) forecasting a total of 34,887 deaths. deaths by September 1, 2021.

The international community must come together and provide unequivocal support to global mechanisms such as COVAX to ensure equitable access to vaccines.

Yamini Mishra

One health worker who spoke to Amnesty International summed up the scale of the situation in his hospital as “like a war zone”. Another described the crisis as worse than the devastating earthquake in Nepal in April 2015, which killed nearly 9,000 people and injured nearly 22,000.

Nepal, like other countries across South Asia, is also facing severe vaccine shortages. As of May 10, 2021, fewer than 2.5 million of Nepal’s 30 million people had even received a single hit – less than one in ten people. COVAX, a global initiative to help low- and middle-income countries obtain vaccines, is not meeting its commitments and rich countries continue to stockpile surplus supplies beyond their requirements.

Nepal urgently needs more vaccines to help fight this second deadly wave of Covid-19. While countries such as China and the United States have now pledged to provide vaccines to Nepal, this is not enough. “The international community must cooperate and provide unequivocal support to global mechanisms such as COVAX to ensure equitable access to vaccines and prioritize the transfer of resources and technology to produce vaccines locally,” said Yamini Mishra.

The period reviewed in this briefing is from April 29 to May 21, 2021. The Covid-19 situation in Nepal changes daily, and the number of infections recorded since mid-May 2021 appears to have decreased as of June 7. However, the urgent requirements mentioned in this briefing remain relevant for Nepal as it continues to fight a large number of issues spread across the country.

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