Kathmandu, May 20 -- To save lives, Nepal's most urgent need now is oxygen. Not just cylinders, but oxygen generators, concentrators and liquid oxygen. Most infected people are not succumbing to Covid-19, they aredying because of low oxygen saturationin the blood, and lack of hospital beds - patients who need not have died of coronavirus.

Dire as the situation is in the cities, Nepal's pandemic has nowinfiltrated the remotest villageswhere there is no hospital care and no oxygen. The virus is preying on people already suffering malnutrition, previous ailments, and decades of structural state neglect.

In Rolpa, Humla and other remote districts, between 80-90% of PCR tests are coming back positive, and it takes a week to get results.Patie...