NEPAL on Monday reported 139 deaths from COVID-19, the highest number of deaths ever logged in the country.

It is the first time that more than 100 patients have been confirmed dead at one time in Nepal since the country was first hit by the pandemic early last year.

The Ministry of Health and Population did not confirm whether all the new deaths occurred in the previous 24 hours.

“I cannot say whether all of them died in the previous 24 hours. A few of them might have died in earlier days too,” Sameer Adhikari, joint spokesperson at the ministry, told Xinhua.

According to the ministry, the latest fatalities have brought the total deaths to 3,859 in the country.

The death toll grew at a time when hospitals are complaining about the shortage of oxygen and beds. Several hospitals in the country have stopped admitting new COVID-19 patients, while social media platforms have been flooded with desperate calls for oxygen and intensive care unit beds for patients.

“Oxygen shortage also might have contributed to significant rise in deaths,” said Adhikari.

Meanwhile, Nepal reported a record high of 9,127 new infections Monday, taking the total cases to 403,794. It is the sixth day in a row that the country has seen over 8,000 new cases in a day.

(Xinhua)