Nepal has registered a record high number of new daily coronavirus infections while Israel starts to distribute millions of free rapid antigen tests and Swedish authorities dropped a requirement for people entering the country to take a test.
Nepal recorded 10,258 new infections on Tuesday, government data showed, the highest number reported in a single day as the government projected the tally could double by the end of the month.
Total infections since the start of the pandemic topped 972,198 and coronavirus-related deaths stood at 11,624.
The previous daily record was 9483 cases in May last year.
Authorities extended an earlier ban on large public gatherings in the hill-ringed Kathmandu valley, home to more than four million people, until February 12 from January 29 to try to control the spread of the virus.
Nepal’s daily number of infections is likely to double by the end of January and hospitalisation cases could increase greatly to put further strain on the country’s poor health infrastructure, officials said.
“This is just a projection for us to prepare,” Krishna Prasad Poudel, head of the epidemiology and disease control division, told Reuters.
“Actual numbers could be higher or lower than the likely 20,000 daily cases before they begin to fall.”
Hospitals ran short of beds and many patients died due to lack of oxygen when the outbreak of the Delta variant peaked in May last year.
Read the article in The West Australian. (