Committee directs government to increase testing capacity

KATHMANDU: AUGUST 9 – The Federal Parliament, State Directive Principles, Policies and Responsibilities Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Committee has directed the Ministry of Health and Population to increase the nationwide capacity for quality treatment and testing for COVID-19 infection control and prevention.

Seeking information from the officials of the Department of Health Services about coronavirus infection risk control and treatment management, the committee instructed the officials also to investigate the irregularities in vaccination and bring the culprit to justice, said Chairperson Niradevi Jairu.

Emphasizing making health care services accessible and affordable, the meeting also directed the authorities to move ahead by upgrading health care and health workers.

On the occasion, the Department of Health presented an estimate of the possibility of 193,856 new infections in the next five months. Out of them, 38, 771 people will need treatment while 9,693 requiring intensive care treatment.

Earlier in the meeting, the Director-General of the Department, Dr Taranath Pokhrel, shared that 13.5 per cent of the total population underwent corona test from 96 RT-PCR laboratories across the country. Of the 3,981,595 tests so far, the RT-PCR has been performed on 36,444,472 and the antigen test on 336,823 individuals. The COVID-19 infection was detected in 2.6 per cent of the total population or 769,922. The fatality rate is 1.3 per cent, with the death toll standing at 9,957 as of August 4.

It was also shared in the meeting that 4.2 million people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of August 4 and the number of citizens who have received both doses or complete vaccination is 2.74 million.