Kathmandu, May 14 -- A month ago, Nepal was reporting an average of only 300 Covid-19 cases daily, and the number of deaths was zero for several days in a row. The people, and the government, thought the worst was over and in any case, a vaccine was arriving.

This week, the total number of active cases exceeded 100,000 with daily infections staying above 9,000 for a week. Daily fatalities are now above 150 every day. The nationwide test positivity rate is as high as 50%.

For a country of 30 million, Nepal's figures are higher than that of India and the rest of the world. As such experts have warned of a health catastrophe as bad if not worse than of the southern neighbour. And our curve has not even started to flatten yet, we are nowher...