Nepal reports new record high of COVID-19 cases

Another record high of 9,070 COVID-19 infections were reported in Nepal on Thursday though most people are obeying a government order to stay at home.

The Ministry of Health and Population said a total of 8,970 cases were confirmed through the polymerase chain reaction tests and the remaining 100 infections were confirmed through the antigen tests. Meanwhile, 54 more deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, the third day in a row for the country to see more than 50 deaths.

Nepal has been witnessing an unrestrained surge in COVID-19 cases since April 18 when 1,015 cases were recorded. The number has hit a new high each day ever since, resulting in the hospitals being overwhelmed with coronavirus patients.

Nepali health experts say the reported cases do not represent the true prevalence of the scourge.

"The data released by the Nepali government are of just those who were tested after developing symptoms of the disease," Dr. Binjwala Shrestha, an assistant professor at Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine, told Xinhua. "If you conduct tests among all the people in a community, you can find several-times-higher infections than currently reported cases."

Shrestha cautioned that as long as the chain of infections is not broken at the community level, it would not be enough to defeat the virus by only adding hospitals beds and health facilities.

Dr. Archana Shrestha, an associate professor of the public health department at the Kathmandu University, told the press that Nepal is still in an early stage of the infections from the second wave. "Nepal has witnessed one third of potential infections so far and two thirds of infections are yet to take place," she said.

The Ministry of Health and Population has projected 11,000 infections in a single day in the worst-case scenario.