Nepal Me Bhang

Kathmandu, Aug 19 (IANS) A total of 7,141 suicides were recorded in Nepal in the 2020-21 fiscal year that ended in mid-July, up 14.2 per cent year-on-year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest data released by the police.Of the deaths, 3,928 were males, 2,449 were females and the rest were children, the data revealed.Saroj Prasad Ojha, head of the Psychiatry Department at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, blamed mental health problems amid the pandemic for more suicides in the country."Almost 90 per cent of suicides are associated with mental health issues like anxiety and depression, which have increased this year," he told Xinhua on Wednesday."Social isolation has triggered mental health problems among people," he said. "People who were asked to stay indoors during Covid-19 are facing mental health problems related to psycho-socio factors, which are the biggest cause of suicides."Psycho-socio factors like unemployment, prolonged academic schedules, family disputes, financial problems, alcohol abuse and substance abuse have contributed to most suicides, according to Ojha.Jagannath Lamichhane, who has been working on mental health advocacy for the past 12 years, said: "Instead of viewing suicide as a public health issue, our society sees suicide from a criminal perspective which makes it difficult for people to talk about suicide and mental health. Due to this hesitation, most of the suicide attempts went unreported.""More than 50 per cent of mental health problems start before adolescence which makes the youth vulnerable," he told Xinhua. "So we have to advocate mental health from the grass-root level by introducing the subject of suicide prevention and mental wellbeing in school education."--IANSksk/

Kathmandu, Aug 13 (IANS) Nepal is the second country globally to have completed agreements with GAVI as it sets out to procure four million doses of Moderna vaccines, financed by the World Bank, through the COVAX cost-share option.Delivery of these vaccines are expected to start by March 2022 and will contribute to the Himalayan nation's goal to vaccinate at least 72 per cent of its population, including children between 12 and 17 years of age for whom the Moderna vaccine is deemed safe and effective, the World Bank, Nepal office said in a statement on Friday."Nepal is an early mover in utilizing the COVAX cost-share scheme, and I am pleased to note that we have finalized an arrangement, despite very challenging circumstances, to bring safe and highly effective vaccines to Nepal," said Umesh Shrestha, Minister of State for Health and Population. "Moderna vaccines have helped expand options for vaccinating Nepalis above 12 years of age and fast-track the Nepal's progress towards a safer post-COVID world."The World Bank has made available $104 million to support the Government of Nepal's health response to the pandemic, with $67.5 million earmarked to purchase and deploy Covid-19 vaccines.Last month, 1,000 oxygen concentrators were brought in through the project while seven oxygen generation plants were in the process of being established, one in each of the seven provinces of the South Asian nation. "We are honored to support the people and Government of Nepal, along with our development partners, by financing the purchase of safe and effective vaccines through the COVAX facility," said Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. "This is a key element of our overall COVID response by helping to meet emergency health needs and strengthening the healthcare and vaccine delivery system."The World Bank supports countries' COVID-19 vaccine implementation plans. Countries make choices based on their specific needs and the WHO's recommended policy and guidelines on vaccines, therapeutics, and other tools they adopt.The Moderna vaccine meets the criteria required for IBRD/IDA resources in vaccine purchase. The Bank accepts as eligible the COVID-19 vaccines that (i) have received regular or emergency licensure or authorization from at least one of the Stringent Regulatory Authorities (SRAs) identified by World Health Organization (WHO) for vaccines procured and/or supplied under the COVAX Facility, as may be amended from time to time by WHO; or (ii) have received WHO Prequalification or WHO Emergency Use Listing. "We commend the Government of Nepal for being the first country in South Asia, and one of the first in the world, to join and tap into the COVAX cost-share option," said Hartwig Schafer, World Bank Vice President for South Asia. "The World Bank is committed to continuing our support to Nepal's COVID-19 vaccination program, which is critical to helping the people and economy of Nepal build back better from this unprecedented crisis."Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank Group has allotted over $157 billion to fight the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic, the fastest and largest crisis response in its history, the bank said in a statement.--IANSgiri/in

Kathmandu, July 21 (IANS) With a large number of workers in the tourism industry rendered unemployed amid the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, the Nepal Tourism Board is implementing a programme to provide temporary employment to those who have lost their jobs.Launched in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, it is offering short-term employment to lower-level workers in the tourism sector by engaging them in the sanitisation and maintenance of tourism facilities, which include trekking routes and bridges along the trails.On Tuesday, the tourism board started seeking proposals from local non-governmental organisations, cooperatives and community-based organisations with a view to having their participation in the programme, Xinhua news agency reported."We initially started the program early this year in just five locations," Dhananjay Regmi, chief executive officer of the tourism board, told Xinhua. "We're implementing this programme nationwide from the new 2021-22 fiscal year."Nepal's new fiscal year began on July 16.According to Regmi, the programme shall be carried out in all the rural municipalities of hilly and mountainous districts under a resource-sharing mechanism as well as in some rural municipalities of the southern plain districts."We aim to provide short-term employment to 1,600 tourism workers under this program being implemented under the sustainable tourism for livelihood recovery project," said Regmi. "We're also going to implement a separate program related to tourism infrastructure development in which additional tourism workers will be employed."Nepal's tourism is among the sectors being hit hard by the coronavirus, and hotels and restaurants had cut jobs by 40 per cent during the first wave of the epidemic in early 2020, according to a survey conducted by the Nepali central bank in June 2020.Ever since the pandemic befell and a second wave hit in early April this year, the tourism industry in Nepal has been struggling to recover amid dwindling foreign arrivals. In 2019, the South Asian country received 1.17 million foreign tourists. The number fell to 230,085 in 2020 and diminished further to a meagre 58,040 by mid-June this year, according to the Department of Immigration.As a result, accommodation and food services had witnessed a negative growth of 25.72 per cent in the 2019-20 fiscal year, the Central Bureau of Statistics figures show.According to the Economic Census 2018 conducted by the bureau, tourism industry was providing 371,140 jobs in Nepal, making it the fourth largest job creator.--IANSint/pgh

Kathmandu, July 18 (IANS) India on Sunday gifted 150 ICU beds to Nepal as part of its commitment to Covid-19 cooperation with the Himalayan nation.Indian Ambassador to Vinay Mohan Kwatra handed over the beds to Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Gyanendra Bahadur Karki at a ceremony organised at the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday, according to the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.At the ceremony, Kwatra reiterated India's commitment to assist Nepal in comprehensively managing the pandemic, including through cooperation in the critical health infrastructure of the country. Karki appreciated the gesture from India, adding that it is an important milestone in Nepal's fight against Covid-19 and it shows the incredible goodwill enjoyed by both the countries. Since the start of the pandemic, India has provided around $6.5 million worth of grant assistance to Nepal, through supply of essential medicines, RT-PCR tests, ventilators, and essential medicines, etc. Nepal was one of the first countries to receive 1 million doses of Covishield vaccines from India in January 2021 as grant. Besides this, the Indian Army has also supplied 1 lakh doses of vaccines to the Nepal Army as grant, along with medical supplies including BIPAP machines, antigen kits, PPE, masks, ambulances and ICU beds. India and Nepal have a robust cooperation in the health sector, that includes supply of ambulances, regular training and capacity building programmes, and development of health infrastructure including major hospitals, trauma & maternity centres, naturopathy centres, eye care centres etc. --IANSgiri/vd