Bharatpur Hospital has once again become overwhelmed with a surge in new COVID-19 patients. As the number of COVID infections continues to increase in the district, so has the number of people coming to the hospital for treatment.

Bharatpur Hospital provides free of cost treatment to people suffering from the respiratory contagion. However, almost all beds set aside for the treatment of COVID patients at the hospital are currently occupied.

The hospital has allocated 110 beds for COVID-19 patients. Of them, 104 beds currently occupied. The remaining six beds are for VIPs.

According to the Hospital’s Information Officer Liladhar Poudel, the number of patients admitted to the hospital had reached 112 on Friday.

Among the 104 COVID infected people currently undergoing treatment at the hospital, 58 patients are said to have minor and moderate symptoms. As many as 25 COVID patients are undergoing treatment in HDU and 21 in Intensive Care Unit.

The hospital has an intensive care unit with the capacity of 25 beds.

Acting Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, Dr Krishna Prasad Poudel, said that the number of infections had risen in Bharatpur due people’s gross negligence towards health safety protocol.

He said that it was not possible to admit more patients as the hospital beds were now fully occupied.

“The bed allotted for COVID-19 patients in the hospital is full. Other infected people cannot be admitted,” he said.

Stating that though discussions were underway to add more beds at the hospital to cater to the increasing number of patients, Dr Poudel said that private hospitals should also treat COVID-19 patients to help ease the crowd.

At present, COVID-19 patients are being treated at Chitwan Medical College and College of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (Old Medical College) along with Bharatpur Hospital in the district.

According to public health officer Gitanjali Dhakal, the number of active COVID-19 cases stands at is 2,236 in the district. Of them, 2,106 are being treated in home isolation, eight in public isolation and 122 in hospitals.

On Sunday, the Health Ministry recorded 1,981 new cases of coronavirus infection in the country, including 851 in Kathmandu valley.

With this, Nepal’s COVID caseload has reached 697,370, including 656,197 recoveries, 31,298 active cases, and 9,875 deaths.

Morang, Jhapa, Sunsari, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Chitwan, Makawanpur, Nuwakot, Kaski, Nawalparasi (East), Rupandehi, and Surkhet have more than 500 active COVID cases each.

As many as 18 people died of COVID related complications in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll from the respiratory contagion in the country to 9,875 at a case fatality rate of 1.5 per cent, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.