Kathmandu, Oct. 21 -- In the past eight months of this year, 791 people have died in Nepal from Covid-19. In the whole of 2019,air pollutiondirectly killed 42,100 people in the country.

Poor air quality in cities and inside homes due to smoky kitchen fires kill far more people across South Asia than SARS-CoV-2. But now, researchers say, there is a looming danger thatas winter approaches, deterioration of air quality and Covid-19 will emerge as a double whammy.

Even before the pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was already warning that poorair qualityin the Indo-Gangetic plains that includes a part of the Tarai in Nepal was already thereducing average lifespanof tens of millions of people by 3.7 years.

"Long-term exposure to ...