Nepal’s Covid-19 crisis threatens to overtake India’s coronavirus catastrophe

As global attention remains focused on India’s runaway Covid-19 infections, Nepal is in the midst of battling its own second coronavirus wave, pushing its health care system to the brink. Oxygen is in such short supply in Nepal that it has asked climbers on Mount Everest to return canisters to be refilled for medical use. Nepal reported 8,064 new Covid-19 cases and 246 deaths on May 19, 2021, taking the total caseload to 480,418 and the death toll to 5,657. The country has been recording more than 8,400 daily coronavirus cases on average for the past week.