HANDLING OF COVID-19 IN PERIPHERAL HEALTHCARE INSTITUTIONS IN NEPAL

Background: With the increase in COVID-19 cases globally as a pandemic, the concern should be there for the management of such disease from a different level of healthcare set up. The aim of this review was focused on the assessment of COVID-19 cases from the healthcare setups in the periphery. Methods: The English-language databases of Google Scholar, PubMed, were searched using the following keywords: ‘COVID-19’, ‘handling of COVID-19, ‘primary healthcare center’, and ‘Nepal’. All the related articles published in journals as well as newspapers were considered for this nar­rative review Results: There are 7177 cases in Nepal with 20 mortalities, 1167 recovered cases, and 5990 cases under treatment as of June 17, 2020. Conclusion: As there is no proven treatment for COVID-19, countries with low economic income like Nepal are facing great challenges by the disease due to poor quarantine facilities and limited testing capacities. The peripheral healthcare institutions in Nepal are doing their level best for management of COVID-19 cases though lack of adequate resources is still there. Cases in Nepal are rapidly increasing and it is necessary to allocate proper resources based on the areas of most need to control the outbreak.