Understanding COVID-19 in Nepal

Pun, Sher Bahadur; Mandal, Shrawan Kumar; Bhandari, Lilanath; Jha, Santoshananda; Rajbhandari, Sagar Kumar; Mishra, Abdhesh Kumar; Chalise, Bimal Sharma; Shah, Rajesh

doi:10.33314/jnhrc.v18i1.2629

Cited by 28 publications

(35 citation statements)

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“…This prevalence also might not represent national level prevalence as samples from random populations have not been tested. Early studies reported that COVID-19 patients in Nepal showed few or no symptoms at all (24,36). The situation updates of the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) also indicates that most of the confirmed cases are found through active surveillance and contact tracing rather than patients visiting hospitals with symptoms (25).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early Epidemiological Features of COVID-19 in Nepal and Public Health Response

Dhakal

Karki²

2020

Front. Med.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first reported in late 2019 from Wuhan, China. Considering COVID-19's alarming levels of spread and severity, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. The first case of COVID-19 in Nepal was reported on January 23, 2020. The Government of Nepal implemented different public health measures to contain COVID-19, including border closures and a countrywide lockdown. We collected the daily data provided by the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) of the Government of Nepal and illustrated the early epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in Nepal. By May 31, 2020, 1,572 cases and eight deaths were reported in Nepal associated with COVID-19. The estimate of prevalence for COVID-19 among tested populations was 2.25% (95% CI: 2.15-2.37%) and case-fatality rate was 0.5%. The majority of the cases were young males (n = 1,454, 92%), with overall average age being 30.5 years (ranging from 2 months to 81 years) and were mostly asymptomatic. There were only five cases from three districts until the end of March, but cases surged from April and spread to 57 out of 77 districts of Nepal by the end of May 2020 despite the continuous lockdown. Most of these cases are from the southern plains of Nepal, bordering India. As the effect of COVID-19 is expected to persist longer, the Government of Nepal should make appropriate strategies for loosening lockdowns in a phase-wise manner while maintaining social distancing and personal hygiene and increasing its testing, tracking, and medical capacity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The highest number of cases have been reported from India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia (23). In Nepal, the first case of COVID-19 was officially reported on 23rd January 2020 in a 32-year-old man who returned from Wuhan, China (24). The second case was detected after two months on 23rd March.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Epidemiological Features of COVID-19 in Nepal and Public Health Response

Dhakal

Karki²

2020

Front. Med.

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“…The case was a male individual who was 32 years in age and was a citizen of Nepal who was studying in Wuhan. He returned to Nepal for a winter vacation on January 9, 2020 [ 17,18]. The throat swab was sent to Hongkong and was found to be COVID-19 positive on January 25, 2020 [19].…”

Section: Timeline Of Covid-19 In Nepalmentioning

confidence: 99%

The changing pattern of COVID-19 in Nepal: A Global concern- A Narrative Review

Banerjee¹,

Robinson²,

Kashyap³

et al. 2020

Nepal J Epidemiology

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This narrative review of the literature aims to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the younger age group in terms of the Global mortality of COVID-19 in comparison to Nepal. An extensive literature survey of English literature was conducted using Pubmed, Medline, Google Scholar, Embase, WHO Nepal Situation Updates on COVID-19, Situation update report, Ministry of Health and Population-Nepal from January 25, 2020 to June20, 2020. According to the Ministry of Health and population of The Government of Nepal, as of June 20 , 2020, out of a total of 8,605 laboratory confirmed cases reported to date, the pattern shows that most of the cases fell into the cohort of 21-30 years (37.72%), followed by 11-20 years (24.35 %), 31-40 years (21.97%) and 41-50 years (9.2%). To date Nepal has recorded a total of twenty-two deaths. At first evaluation thesefigures may not strike one as alarming, but on further investigation it is noted that the mean age is 42. 32 ± 19.632 SD years, and out of which male patients accounted for 77.3% and female accounted for 22.7%. The current situation of COVID-19 and how it develops in Nepal should be closely monitored and could be of international concern as it may be the early indicator of a changing pattern in COVID-19 infections. Nepal maytherefore act as a global watch dog, due to the fact that the world could very possibly expose the younger age group under the notion that they are more resilient to the virus, when in reality that notion may be changing. This trend must be monitored and further investigated in order to establish the risk of the events unfolding in Nepal.

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“…The indexed case was found on 23 January 2020 in Kathmandu on a person who had travelled from Wuhan, China [5]. The second case was confirmed two months later on 23 March who had travelled to Nepal from France via Qatar [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic in Nepal: A Lockdown Scenario Analysis

Parajuli¹,

Banstola

Parajuli

2020

Preprint

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The Government of Nepal issued a nationwide lockdown from 24 March to 21 July 2020, prohibiting domestic and international travels, border closures and closure of non-essential services. We collated the data provided by the Nepalese Ministry of Health and Population and assessed scenario of COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal during the lockdown period. There were only two confirmed cases from 610 Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests and no fatalities when the government introduced nationwide lockdown. Nepal had performed 7,791 RT-PCR tests for COVID-19, the highest number of tests during the lockdown. It has recorded its highest daily rise in coronavirus infections with a total of 740 new cases from the total of 4,483 RT-PCR tests performed on a single day. Nepal had reported total 17,994 positive cases and 40 deaths at the end of lockdown. The spatial distribution clearly shows that the cases were rapidly spreading from the southern part of the country where most points of entry and exit from India are located. The Government of Nepal needs to allocate more resources, increase its capacity to test and trace, establish dedicated isolation and quarantine facility and impose local restrictions to manage potential COVID-19 outbreak after easing lockdown.

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Understanding COVID-19 in Nepal

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

Early Epidemiological Features of COVID-19 in Nepal and Public Health Response

Early Epidemiological Features of COVID-19 in Nepal and Public Health Response

The changing pattern of COVID-19 in Nepal: A Global concern- A Narrative Review

Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic in Nepal: A Lockdown Scenario Analysis

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