The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has warned Nepal’s health system is at risk of being overrun by rising Covid cases, as India’s outbreak spills across into neighboring nations around South Asia.
The comments were made on Wednesday, as data showed that Nepal is now reporting 57 times the number of Covid cases it recorded a month ago and that more than 40% of tests are returning a positive result.
This, paired with a slow vaccine rollout, is leaving an increasing number of people at risk of the virus in a country that does not have the resources to fight the pandemic.
“We need to act now and we need to act fast to have any hope of containing this human catastrophe,” the Asia Pacific director of the Red Cross, Alexander Matheou warned.
The humanitarian group urged officials to take swift action, seeing the situation in India as “a horrifying preview of Nepal’s future,” which could see cremations rise to record levels as variants increase the spread of the virus.
Nepal is not the only neighbor of India that is at risk of being overwhelmed by coronavirus. Bangladesh and Pakistan have seen spikes in infections, forcing border restrictions and domestic measures to protect against the ‘Indian variant.’
Wednesday once again saw India report a record number of Covid infections, with the Asian nation responsible for around half of the new daily infections globally and a quarter of deaths from the virus in the last week.
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