The majority of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Kathmandu Valley are vaccinated.
Twenty-five of the 41 patients undergoing treatment at the COVID-19 Central Hospital are vaccinated, according to Deputy Director at the hospital Dr Prajwal Shrestha. There were just eight patients 10 days back. "Eight of those 25 vaccinated patients are fully vaccinated," Dr Shrestha said.
Similarly, 51 of the 60 patients at the APF Hospital in Balambu are vaccinated, according to Spokesperson Dr Pravin Nepal. "The majority of them have milder symptoms probably as they are vaccinated," Dr Nepal said.
Many of those admitted for COVID at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), Maharajgunj are also jabbed. Communications Officer Ram Bikram Adhikari said that the hospital doesn't currently have updated details of all the COVID patients but added most of them are vaccinated.
Virologist Dr Bishnu Upadhyaya urged people to be careful even as vaccinated folks are being infected. "There can be infection even after being vaccinated. Some show symptoms and get tested. But many may be asymptomatic and even they can transmit it to others," Dr Upadhyaya added.
He added that the vaccinated people are less likely to be severely ill even if they are infected citing preliminary studies in the West which show that virulence of the latest Omnicron variant seem to be lower than Delta variant even though it can infect even the vaccinated people.
He urged the government to think about booster dose now with vaccinated people getting infected to rev up the flagging immune system against the newest variant. But the government has not taken a solid step to start administering booster dose as it has fully vaccinated less than 40 percent of the population.
It, however, is planning to start booster dose to those working at the frontline from the next week.
