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Nepal is on the cusp of a Covid-19 catastrophe. As of this writing, daily reported new infections have climbed to 7,500, with nearly 3,500 total deaths. The actual numbers, on both counts, could be much higher. This is the time for every conscionable Nepali citizen and organization to help the country tackle the deadly virus and prevent unnecessary loss of lives and livelihoods. The private sector, in this regard, has failed its duty. A part of it may also have been involved in a criminal act of disrupting vital vaccination supplies. 

Asked about the delay in import of Indian vaccines, Health Minister Hridesh Tripathi had replied some time ago that at least a million more doses of the Covishield would already have been imported if not for some meddlesome ‘middlemen’. These people were using their clout, both in India and Nepal, to disrupt supplies. They wanted to import the vaccines at a 10 percent mark-up, an offer the ministry declined. So, a bunch of selfish businessmen has been denying life-saving vaccines to hundreds of thousands of Nepalis. 

If so, these unconscionable middlemen who wanted to profit from the misery of their brethren must be brought to book and barred from all future government-related contracts. A dangerous precedent could be set if no action is taken against such blatant disregard of people’s health and wellbeing. That said, Minister Tripathi’s admission also suggested the weakness, if not collusion, of our state mechanisms. The reality is that the federal government has failed in Covid management right from the start of the contagion in Nepal back in March 2020. 

Prime Minister KP Oli must clear the bottlenecks in the import of vaccines and save further embarrassment to his government. It is upon him to back his thoughtful speech to the country on April 29 on corona-control with urgent action. On the line is not just his political legacy, but also the lives of millions of Nepalis.  

Soon after the announcement of anti-pandemic prohibitory orders, people started hoarding petroleum products. There were long lines outside gas stations as vehicle owners jockeyed to fill their petrol and diesel tanks. Not just that. Many of them had brought along big jerry-cans, each soon filled brimful with fuel. Hoarding is natural human behavior in times of crisis, but also a dangerous one. For people are not just hoarding fuel. They are stocking up on vital medications. More dangerous, fearing the worst, hospitals and even some private businesses are now holding oxygen-filled cylinders. 

The private suppliers of oxygen and the hospitals with their own oxygen-making plants assure that with their collective daily capacity of supplying 8,000 cylinders, they are well-placed to meet Kathmandu valley’s current demand of just under 6,000 cylinders. But they admit they could be stretched thin if the rate of infections continues to increase. And again, we are only talking about Kathmandu. Of the 185 hospitals in the country, only 26 have oxygen plants of their own, and unlike inside the valley many hospitals outside it have no dedicated source of supply. 

The federal government is exploring importing at least 20,000 additional oxygen cylinders. (Apparently, oxygen production will not be a problem as much as supplying it in cylinders.) With India struggling to meet its own cylinder demand, Nepal is looking at China for fresh supplies. The pandemic is expected to peak in Nepal after around three months. The country cannot be prepared enough to forestall perhaps thousands of preventable deaths. No, this is not being alarmist. Time really has come to prepare for the worst. This includes preventing the hoarding of life-and-death substances like oxygen. The ability to pay should not decide who gets to live and who not. Right now, nothing is more important than a mechanism that ensures oxygen cylinders go to those who most need them the most. 

‘Chaotic’ is the word to describe Nepal’s anti-Covid vaccination drive thus far. Take the new confusion of those in the 60-65 age bracket. Earlier phases of vaccination had covered those over 65. When the next age-wise vaccination started, it was said those aged 45-49 would be jabbed. The 60-65 bracket seems to have escaped the minds of those who decide these things—or if there is a valid reason for the omission, most of the elderly folks in this age group have no clue about it. There appears to be as big a confusion over the safety of the Chinese vaccines now being administered.

If the vaccines are safe, the government has not bothered to inform the people and remove their doubts. This in turn has sparked a further speculation: perhaps even those administering the vaccines are unsure. To make things more confusing, it was announced that the 800,000 available doses of the Chinese vaccines would be given to all “essential workers”, without clarifying who fell into the two categories. As we have argued in this space before, if the contagion is to be halted, the government needs to do a far better job of informing and taking people into confidence.

Meanwhile, on April 19, new Covid-19 restrictions were announced. For the next three weeks, congregations with over 25 people have been banned. Schools and colleges have been forced shut. Restaurants will have to shut down by 8 pm. These restrictions had been expected amid the galloping rates of new Covid-19 infections, especially among school- and college-going students. A general lockdown of the kind enforced in 2020, which seemed to do more harm than good, has been wisely avoided.

To make a credible dent in infection rates, implementing a stricter surveillance mechanism on the porous Nepal-India border has to be the first order of business. As in the past, this time too Nepal has imported most Covid-19 infections across land borders with India. And a lot more vaccines need to be brought. What happened to Russian vaccines, one wonders. Wasn’t Russia sending enough of its Sputnik V vaccines to inoculate nearly every Nepali? Why haven’t any of them come? There is not a moment to lose in this fight against a cunning, shapeshifting virus. We certainly can’t afford the kind of chaos that has characterized Nepal’s vaccination drive to this point.

We know it is coming. Yet we seem to have given up even before the dreaded second Covid-19 wave arrives. There is zero trust between the government and the citizens it supposedly represents. The presence of enormous, unmasked crowds at various party venues to bring in 2078 BS, all over the country, suggests people either don’t believe the new Covid-19 contagion is serious enough or they don’t give a damn. Rather than trust an incompetent, lying government, they would take their chances. Rather than stay cooped up in their homes like caged animals—and for what, they might ask after their previous lockdown experiences?—they would live freely to their last breath. 

The government response has been blasé. It has shown no commitment to screen the thousands of people who have been streaming into Nepal from India on a daily basis. Since India placed restrictions on its nationals from traveling abroad from Indian territories following the new Covid-19 wave, many of them are making a beeline to Kathmandu in order to fly to third-country destinations. Most of them admit to evading border surveillance mechanisms that would have meant lining up for Covid-19 screening for hours. Similar apathy has characterized government efforts to import vaccines. Not even a tenth of the population has been jabbed till date. 

Private school owners meanwhile are reluctant to shut down their institutions, willfully ignoring a clear evidence of spread of a dangerous variant of Covid-19 among young students. Unlike the previous variant that afflicted mostly the elderly, this one hits the youth the hardest. Hospital beds are quickly filling up. A more credible government should have had no problem making the school owners see sense. But as the Oli government battles for its very survival, it has been badly distracted from the growing virus menace, and its credibility is crumbling fast.  

There is confusion all around. Even amid a severe shortage of vaccines, those who remain to be vaccinated are already having second thoughts after hearing of severe side-effects of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines. The government has done a very poor job of communicating why getting the vaccine is worth the risk, or if people should really hold back. As it vacillates, people are coming to their own conclusions. The previous year in Bikram Sambat was a forgettable one for Nepal. The omens are ominous for 2078 BS as well.