Lumbini Province hotspot for COVID: Hospitals full, transmission in children high as schools remain open

April 22, 2021

RUPANDEHI: A PCR test of 193 people at Bheri Zone Hospital on Tuesday showed COVID infection in 189 people. The situation is similar in many districts of Lumbini.

COVID hospitals in Lumbini province have been flooded with infected people after the second wave of COVID. As the rate of COVID infection increases on a daily basis, patients are rushed to the hospital.

The pressure of patients in the hospital has made Lumbini province a hotspot of COVID. But the general public has not taken adherence to health standards seriously.

In the second wave of COVID infection, the infection rate among children is higher in many places in Lumbini province. Doctors have been saying that the new variant of coronavirus infection is more contagious and affects children more.

Although the government has decided to close schools in the country’s main cities due to the high incidence of COVID infection in children, it has not been followed in the region.

Graphs of transmission rising

The number of infected people in Banke, Rupandehi and Dang has increased five times in a week. COVID hospital beds are full during this period. At present, 110 people are being treated in ICU and ventilator in five hospitals. Of these, 11 are on ventilators, according to the province Ministry of Social Development.

With these figures, Lumbini province has become a hotspot for COVID infection. As the number of people entering from India has increased, so has the number of infected people in the three districts. A total of 541 people were infected with COVID in the province on Tuesday. On Monday, 466 people were infected. Of them, only 342 are from Banke. In Dang, 56 cases were reported and in Rupandehi, 37 cases were reported. In Banke, more than 55 per cent of those tested for COVID have been found to be infected.

Bheri Hospital is treating 48 people with symptoms. Thirty-two people are being treated in the ICU and six in the ventilator. Nepalgunj Medical College is treating 22 people in ICU.

There were 50 infected people in the province on 8th April. Ten days later, on April 20, 466 people were infected. The infection has been on the rise here since April last year. By April, a total of 732 people had been infected during the rainy season. Five people died of COVID infection on Monday.

Information Officer of the Ministry of Social Development Dr. Pushparaj Poudel informed that the corona infection rate in the state is 53.26 per cent and more than half of those who come for testing have seen COVID.

Dr Arif Hussein said Patients in ICU and ventilator have been suffering from respiratory problems, fever, high blood pressure and other problems.

Six government and private hospitals in the district have been treating the infected people. There are 37 ICUs and 10 ventilators in all the hospitals. Now everything is filling up. If the infection spreads like this, there will be a lack of ICU and ventilator in Rupandehi and there will be a shortage of beds to keep them infected.

As the number of patients in coronavirus is increasing daily, the district level Covid-19 Crisis Management Center has started preparations to increase the number of beds with oxygen in government hospitals, make hotels as isolation centres and ICUs and ventilators with covid treatment in private hospitals, said Asman Tamang, Chief District Officer of Rupendehi.

Infection rate high in children

Many children now have symptoms such as coughing, fever, and diarrhoea. Medical Superintendent of Lumbini Provincial Hospital, Dr Rajendra Khanal, said that the recovery rate is low even if there is a new coronavirus infection.

Previous COVID infection rates were lower in children. Doctors say that in the new variant, the appearance of school children has become serious.

Infections among children are on the rise in Butwal, Bhairahawa, Ghorahi, Tulsipur, Koholpur and Nepalgunj, the main cities of Lumbini. Of the 208 people infected in a week in Rupandehi, five are under 16 years of age. In Banke, 55 children have been infected.

Schools not closed

Although the government has decided to close schools in major cities of the country after the spread of the new species of COVID-19, it has not been followed in the region. The cabinet meeting has decided to close schools in major urban areas by mid-May.

Following the government’s decision, the DCCMC meeting at the district level has given permission to run the school following the health standards. It is said that most of the teachers in the schools are infected but the parents have complained that the schools have not been closed.

Parents have complained that they were pressured to send their children by phone when they did not send them to school. He said that he could not deny the statement of the school as the examination was approaching.

Despite the decision of the district level COVID-19 Crisis Management Center in Rupandehi to allow the school to operate by following the required health standards, there has been indifference in following the standards. Doctors say that they have not shown much interest in keeping the children under special care.

Dr Santosh Pokharel, a paediatrician, says that measures should be taken to prevent infections such as preventing children from going to crowds and forcing them to follow public health standards while teaching in schools. Despite the government’s directive to close schools other than those in urban areas where examinations are conducted, school administrators have not complied with the government’s directive.

To conduct virtual classes in Banepa, Dhulikhel, Bharatpur, Kankadvitta, Birtamod, Damak, Rajbiraj, Hetauda, Bhairahawa, Biratnagar, Itahari, Dharan, Birgunj, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi, Janakpur, Pokhara, Butwal, Ghorahi, Tulsipur and other cities of the valley till mid-April. The decision has been made.

Only Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan Municipality of Lumbini has decided to close the school. Mayor Dhawalshamsher Rana said that the decision was taken to close the school as the corona rate was high.

The number of patients in the hospitals is increasing day by day, Dr Binod Kumar Giri said. He said that the number of COVID patients in four hospitals in Lumbini province under the state government was high. According to him, there are no vacancies for new patients at the Corona Special Hospital in Butwal, which is currently under the control of Lumbini Hospital Butwal, COVID Hospital in Belgundi, Dang, Bheri Hospital in Nepalgunj and Bhim Hospital in Bhairahawa.

According to Drona Oli, manager of COVID Hospital in Beljundi, Dang, the hospital has a capacity of 25 inmates.

According to him, five people have been treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while 21 others have been treated in the General Ward. Oxygen has also been given to 21 people in the general ward. “We have a capacity of 25 people, five of whom have ICU beds,” he said, “but now we are forced to have 26.”

As the number of infected people has been increasing lately, there is concern about how to manage the infected people, said Oli. At present, the hospital has 15 patients from Ghorahi, eight from Tulsipur, two from Shantinagar and one from Rolpa.

COVID Hospital is operated in Ayurveda Teaching Hospital under Nepal Sanskrit University. Only the ground floor is used for the hospital. BAMS classes are being conducted on the upper floor. The upper two and three floors of the hospital can be operated up to 55 beds, said Oli.

6 killed in one day

The death of a patient in Rupandehi has made it clear how terrible the COVID infection is. Six people have died in Rupandehi on the same day. Four died at the UCMS Covid Hospital unit in Bhairahawa and two at the Corona Special Hospital under Lumbini Provincial Hospital. The deceased have been identified as two women and a man from Rupandehi district and three from outside the district, according to the health office. The woman undergoing treatment in Butwal had a fever, pneumonia and respiratory problems.

Lockdown in Banke

The number of people infected with COVID-19 is increasing day by day. A meeting of the Banke District COVID-19 Crisis Management Committee has decided to recommend ‘lockdown’ in the district from April 22 to prevent the pandemic.

Banke Chief District Officer Shivaram Gayla said that the DCCMC was forced to recommend the lockdown as hundreds of infected people were being added every day for the past week.

The ward office of Banke Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan Ward No. 1 has been closed after all the employees of the office were confirmed as COVID. All the COVID special wards in Banke are overcrowded as a large number of infected people will be added on the same day and the number of serious infections will be high.

Growing up every day in Palpa

The rate of COVID infection in Palpa, which has been zero for a few months, is increasing day by day. About 50 per cent of those who underwent PCR testing had a corona infection, which led to an increase in the rate of infection in Palpa.

A PCR test of 39 people in Palpa on Tuesday alone confirmed COVID infection in 19 people. According to the Health Office, Palpa, 8 people from Tansen Municipality, 2/2 people from Baganaskali, Purbakhola and Ribdikot Municipalities, 4 people from Rainadebi Chhahra Municipality and 1 person from Rampur Municipality have been infected.

The number of infected people in Palpa has reached 2,055 so far. Of those infected, 1,963 have recovered and 38 have died.