KATHMANDU: The coronavirus pandemic that first appeared in Nepal after mid-January has got more nearly 18,000 cases till now.

A total of 40 people have lost their lives whereas more than two-thirds of total cases have returned home after recovery.

Interestingly, most of the COVID-19 cases in the country have been without such symptoms.

According to the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD), more than 99.7% of cases in Nepal have been without such symptoms.

Not only this, but the number of people undergoing treatment in intensive care is also very low.

The doctors of Sudurpaschim Province and Province 5 also share a similar experience.

Sudurpaschim Province has provided ICU service to only one person.

“We did not find many cases to provide the ICU service as most of them were without any symptoms and not critical, Dr. Sher Bahadur Kunwar, the Chief of Seti Province Hospital’s COVID-19 Treatment Department shared his experience, “One case was critical enough to receive the ICU service in ventilator, we provided the service, but as could not save his life. Most cases showed no symptoms.”

Similarly, according to a medic from Province 5, only 10 persons were provided the ICU facility and one is still undergoing treatment in ICU but all other cases showed no symptoms of coronavirus pandemic despite testing coronavirus positive.

Pros and cons of not having symptoms

The lack of symptoms has both advantages and disadvantages.

When a COVID-19 positive person does not have symptoms and is unaware of being the carrier of such viruses he is likely to transmit the pandemic to the community which may result in the transmission in the community in an alarming rate.

But, there has been no news of community transmission in alarming rate till date and there are no alarming records of unusual deaths or diseases in the communities.

This shows that the situation is not as horrible as the ‘hypochondriacs’ depict it.

“We have an early warning system in practice which makes it mandatory for all hospitals to report the serious cases of respiratory hazards,” Dr. Basu Dev Pandey, the director of EDCD said, “But interestingly, there are few cases of pneumonia this year than of previous years.”

(With inputs from BBC)