As I write this, my country is battling a new and brutal wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The rise in the number of infections poses a serious challenge to our brave doctors, nurses, other care providers, citizen volunteers and the entire health service system.

Nepal’s history is one of hardship and struggle, yet this pandemic is pushing even us to our limits. The number of infections is straining the healthcare system; it has become tough to provide patients with the hospital beds that they need.

The infection graph is climbing up and so is the rate of people testing positive. There have been about 8,000 new cases every day for the past several days, which is quite high for a country of approximately 30 million people. Even though our mortality rate is relatively low, every one of the 3,720 lives that, at the time of writing, we have lost to the pandemic is precious for us.