After several months of relatively low daily cases in Nepal, COVID-19 cases began to rapidly spike in mid-April, increasing consistently from 152 on 1 April to over 8,000 per day since 5 May. Despite its relatively small population of 29.5 million, Nepal currently finds itself among the countries with the highest daily number of cases in absolute terms. Over 45% of COVID-19 RT-PCR tests are coming back positive. At its current trajectory Nepal is well on track to meet or exceed the worst-case scenario case figure of 300,000 cases over a fourth month period, laid out in the COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan (CPRP).
RESPONSE OBJECTIVES
- Prevent loss of life to COVID-19 through support to the response in health, WASH, logistics, points of entry and risk communication and community engagement.
- Address urgent humanitarian need arising from the secondary impacts of the pandemic and renewed lockdown measures, leading to food insecurity, malnutrition, gaps in protection, livelihood needs and education needs.