KATHMANDU, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Nepali government on Wednesday reported record high single day spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
"The country saw record 5,743 cases in the last 24 hours," Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson at the Health Ministry, said at a regular press meet on Wednesday.
With the coronavirus spreading in the community massively, the Himalayan country has been witnessing rapid rise in coronavirus cases recently.
Wednesday was the second time that daily new cases surpassed 5,000. The last record of daily infections in the country was reported on Oct. 10 with 5,008 new cases in a single day.
With the new infections in the last 24 hours, total coronavirus cases in Nepal reached 144,872, according to the health ministry, which has projected 380,000 cases of COVID-19 in the worst case scenario.
The ministry also reported record high single day deaths of 26 people in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll from the pandemic to 791. The last record of single day deaths was observed on Oct. 11 when 22 people died.
Nepali officials said the country has been seeing increasing number of serious COVID-19 cases which resulted in high number of deaths. According to the ministry, 269 people are currently at intensive care units (ICUs) and 87 are getting treatment with ventilator support.
"Due to increasing number of critical cases, managing ICU beds and ventilators has been difficult, particularly in Kathmandu Valley," Sameer Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesperson at the health ministry told Xinhua earlier this week.
Nepal's health ministry has warned that the country would struggle to manage health facilities provided active COVID-19 cases reach 25,000. However, there are already 44,476 active cases as of Wednesday making it increasingly difficult for patients to get ICU beds and ventilators.
"As health workers are also being infected, the hospitals are facing the shortage of health workers too amid growing serious COVID-19 cases," Dr. Santa Kumar Das, chief of COVID-19 Management Committee at the Kathmandu-based Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, told Xinhua earlier this week. Enditem
