Anna Howe

An image of a woman carrying an elderly woman on her back for vaccination has gone viral. But it tells a bigger and darker story of the country’s health system, experts say.

Nepal's capital shut schools, ordered citizens to carry vaccination cards in public, banned religious festivals and instructed hotel guests to be tested every three days as it battles its biggest COVID-19 outbreak.

Nepal banned large public gatherings and closed schools across the Himalayan nation for nearly three weeks after a spike in coronavirus cases, officials said on Monday.

The death toll after three days of heavy rain in Nepal triggered landslides and flash floods rose to 88 on Wednesday after rescuers recovered 34 more bodies, authorities said.

Compound environmental shocks and their impact on food insecurity in Nepal, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, was the focus of research conducted by faculty in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Around 700 flood-displaced families of Helambu and Melamchi have moved to other cities since the disaster.