Sharjah 24 – AFP: Hospitals have run out of beds and patients are being treated outside, and crematoriums are burning continuously, in Nepal's capital Kathmandu.
The mountainous nation is seeing a shortage in hospital beds and medical oxygen amid an explosion in Covid-19 cases, mirroring a similar situation playing out in neighbouring India.
Nepal is also running low on vaccines following an export ban on jabs introduced last month by India.
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are close to running out of coronavirus vaccines, authorities said Friday, and are hoping China and Russia will bolster South Asia's efforts to tackle a devastating pandemic wave.
Covid-19 cases and deaths have hit record levels across India and its neighbours in recent weeks and all are counting on vaccine campaigns to head off the next surge.
But India's move last month to ban vaccine exports because of growing domestic shortages has badly hit other countries, and the three South Asian nations have slowed their vaccination campaigns as they scour international markets for new stocks.
Nepal has an estimated 1.5 million people waiting for a second shot of Covishield, with supplies also held up by the Indian export ban. It is now getting through dwindling numbers of Sinopharm jabs given by China.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said governments and pharmaceutical companies had to help struggling Asian nations where hospitals are overflowing with sufferers.
Even India, one of the world's major pharmaceutical and vaccine producers, is looking for foreign supplies.
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