I have this function to fetch data from another server(it basically send a command to run a python program, which writes an output into a text file on the remote machine and then it returns the content of the txt file)

const getServerStatus = () => { // returns result of of screen -ls
    const commandQuery = "python3 /home/user/scripts/getServerStatus.py && cat /home/user/scripts/status.txt";
        
        return fetch('http://10.0.0.253:3005/fetch', {
            method: 'POST',
            headers: {
                'Accept': 'application/json',
                'Content-Type': 'application/json'
            },
            body: JSON.stringify({
                command: commandQuery
            })
        })
        .then(res => {
            return res.json();
        })
        .then(data => {
            return data.status;
        })
        .catch(err => { // it catches when fatch fails (server is off)
            return 'OFF'; 
        });
};

And the function gets executed when the user visits home page

app.get('/', checkAuthenticated, async (req, res) => {
    const status = await getServerStatus()
    .then(data => {
        return data;
    });

    res.render('index.ejs', { 
        name: req.user.username,
        title: 'home',
        server_status: status
    });
})

It runs no problem and it returns data and the home page gets rendered very quickly, but the problem is that if I don't refresh the webpage for a curtain amount of time (maybe like 2-3 minutes or so), it'll take around 8-10 seconds to fetch and render the homepage again. I just can't figure out what the problem is. I think there is something wrong with my async functions but I am not sure. Or maybe my node server goes like an idle mode when there's no oncomming connections?

my /fetch endpoint

app.post('/fetch', (req, res) => {
    exec(req.body.command,
    function (error, stdout, stderr) {
        res.send(JSON.stringify({status :stdout.replace(/\s/g, '')}));
        console.log('[+] SERVER STATUS SENT');
        if (error !== null) {
             console.log('exec error: ' + error);
        }
    }); 
});