As crowds form in markets, COVID numbers see increase

The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) Tuesday reported 2,726 new cases of coronavirus infection. With this, the COVID count has reached 685,673. Additionally, 1,173 persons have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the antigen test.

Likewise, the MoHP has recorded 20 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. The ministry on May 19 recorded 246 deaths, the highest daily number. As of Tuesday, the nationwide death toll from COVID-19 has reached 9,758. Presently, there are 28,836 active cases in Nepal.

Meanwhile, the three districts of Kathmandu valley have recorded 774 cases in the past 24 hours. Kathmandu logged 475 cases, Lalitpur logged 167 cases and Bhaktapur logged 132 cases, as per the data released by the MoHP.

As many as 1,778 patients of COVID-19 have recovered in the past 24 hours. As of Tuesday, a total of 647,079 people have recovered from the viral disease, the data released by the MoHP showed. Presently, the recovery rate stands at 94.4 per cent.

Earlier, the MoHP on Monday had reported 2,391 cases of coronavirus infection that had taken the nationwide tally to 682,847.

As of Tuesday, a total of 3,563,978 persons have undergone the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Presently, there are 28,836 persons staying in isolation while 356 others have been placed in quarantine in the country.

Meanwhile, 1,828,484 people have been administered the first dose of Covishield vaccines and 460,308 have been vaccinated with the booster dose. Likewise, 1,633,856 people have been vaccinated with the first dose of the Vero Cell vaccine while 703,596 others have received the second dose as of July 27, 2021, the Ministry's data showed. Similarly, a total of 293,766 persons — 28,453 in Province 2, 194,861 in Bagmati Province, 67,647 in Gandaki Province and 2,805 in Lumbini Province — have been vaccinated with single-shot Janssen vaccines.

More than 194.59 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus worldwide while at least 4,331,000 people have died from COVID-19, following an outbreak that started in Wuhan, China, in early December, COVID-19 Global tracker data shown by Reuters. It has been reported that COVID-19 infections are still rising in 86 countries.