Health experts say risk of COVID-19 is yet to be over

By Mahima Devkota, Kathmandu, Dec.19: Health experts have said that even though active cases of COVID-19 have gone down to zero, coronavirus infection is still not wiped out from the country therefore, vigilance on part of denizens and government is still required. 

No new cases of COVID-19 were detected in the last 24 hours with 199 PCR and antigen testing. 

According to Dr Sanjeev Kumar Thakur, Spokesperson to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), the resurgence is the nature of the coronavirus infection, even though active cases of COVID-19 have gone down to zero and have been below five for some time, the chances of resurgence remains even if one person has coronavirus infection.

Therefore, denizens should do their part by adhering to health safety standards and government needs to strictly monitor places at high risk of spreading the virus. 

He said, “We have witnessed ups and downs of active cases of coronavirus infection over the last three years but the virus is persistent along with each mutation. The risk of the virus is still persistent observing its contagious nature, therefore, denizens need to be vigilant in following the health safety standard.” 

Giving the example of resurging cases of COVID-19 in China recently despite adopting the No positive cases policy, Spokesperson Dr Thakur said that the possibility of the resurgence of new cases of COVID-19 in Nepal is still high with probabilities of new mutations even though active cases have been below five recently. 

Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, an infectious disease specialist at Shukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, said that the cases of COVID-19 have gone significantly down, but the number of PCR testing has decreased enormously as well. Mainly, healthy people who need PCR testing to travel abroad take PCR testing. Around 150-200 people takes PCR recently. 

He said, “There is no seasonality of the virus, it can spread if the mutation changes. But, the virus seems to have gone weaker with each mutation and people developing immunity against it. It shows the relevance of adhering to health safety standards and anti-COVID-19 vaccination.”