Kathmandu, May 30 -- In its daily briefing on Saturday, the Ministry of Health announced that 4,311 people had tested positive for Covid-19, and 116 more people had died in 24 hours from the pandemic.

Experts were encouraged by these figures, and took it as a sign that the second wave had peaked. Indeed, the daily confirmed cases had dropped to half the level a week ago, and so had the positivity rate. Fatalities were also down from nearly 200 a day earlier this month.

However, a new study shows that pandemic statistics the world over are fraught with inaccuracies, and the Nepal figures are also a gross underestimation. The calculations show that new daily infections were probably closer to 120,000 on Saturday, and there were more than ...