Kathmandu, May 5 -- Every day, many Nepalis across the country religiously tune in to the Health Ministry's website, Facebook or Twitter at 4PM. It is thesame grim statistics every day:another day, another record that should not be broken.

On Wednesday, Nepal registered 8,659 new cases and 58 fatalities. The number of active cases is now 66,352 - a hundred-fold increase from mid-March. Half of everyone who gets a PCR test is Covid-19 positive.

These numbers may seem low compared to neighbouring countries like India, but in proportion to the population, it is one of the highest in the world: 211 per 1 million population. In India the figure is 278, but in both countries the tally is said to be a gross underestimate. The virus is also rep...