By Aasha Shah, Kathmandu, Apr. 30: The Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku, which used to be thronged with people receiving COVID-19 vaccines a few days ago, has now been overflowed with virus-infected patients.

Dr. Sagar Rajbhandari, director of the hospital, said, "Of the active COVID-19 patients under treatment at our hospital, 68 are in the serious health condition of which 13 patients are even more critical."

He added that the number of patients in the hospital had been increasing along with the rapidly spreading new variants of coronavirus.

"The number of COVID-19 positive patients visiting the hospital is increasing daily. We are having a hard time in making arrangements to provide treatment to all patients," said Dr. Rajbhandari, adding that even though the health workers were ready to face the second wave, providing health services to the patients was being difficult due to the lack of resources.

"Teku hospital had only 60 beds for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. We recently added 10 more beds. Even though the hospital is congested, we have been treating the patients by keeping them outside the COVID-19 wards," he added.

Dr. Rajbhandari said that patients who are not in serious health conditions were being referred to other hospitals.

"We have been providing treatment free of cost to the virus-infected patients," he said. "However, around 90 per cent of patients infected with the new variant of the virus require oxygen support; we are facing difficulties due to the lack of enough oxygen."