KATHMANDU: With the rising cases of COVID-19, there has been a shortage of beds and ventilators at the hospitals in the Kathmandu Valley.

Sharing the woes of not having treatment for his relative infected with COVID-19, Dipendra Singh, who brought his kin infected with COVID-19 to Kathmandu from Janakpur, said doctors could not put his ailing kin on a ventilator at Shukraraaj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, citing a lack of ventilators.

He said to have called almost all the hospitals in the Kathmandu Valley but in vain. The hospitals responded that they had no ventilators available.

Dipendra’s 28-year-old relative Indra Dev Mahato has been infected with COVID-19. Dipendra brought him to Kathmandu after beds were not available in Janakpur Zonal Hospital.

Unfortunately, the infected could not get treatment here in the federal capital, too.

This is only a representative case, there many people like Dipendra scrambling for beds to admit their COVID-19 patients.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Health and Population reported that there were 255 ventilators in Bagmati Pradesh and only 32 were being used. It has revealed a big gap between the statistics presented by the government and the reality on the ground.

When asked about the facts of the ventilators, Dr Jageshwor Gautam, the spokesperson at the Health Ministry, claimed that the ventilators are available at the hospitals in the capital even though there is a shortage at Teku Hospital.

People, in general, have accused the government of presenting fake data related to COVID-19 and the resources available to tackle it, rather than accepting the reality and bracing for the COVID-19 pandemic, accordingly.