Highlights from Health Ministry’s regular briefing on COVID-19 response
KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), in its regular press briefing, shared the latest updates from across the country on the government's response to Covid-19 crisis.
Aiming to scout the active cases of COVID-19 infection in the county, as of today, 70,023 tests — including 15,492 tests through Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method and 54,531 Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT) — have been carried out, where 1,859 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours.
At present, there are 15,624 people under quarantine in various facilities across the country.
Furthermore, 135 persons are in isolation. Among those isolated, three of them are in Kathmandu valley while the remaining 132 are outside.
The government’s mobile application Hamro Swasthya and web portal covid19.mohp.gov.np have registered 275 entries in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of self-evaluated entries to 33,797.
One new person has been added to the red-zone list in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of those in the red zone to 336. Their contact tracing is being carried out by the concerned authorities.
One new case of Covid-19 transmission has been identified today, stated the ministry. A 16-year-old male tested positive while running a PCR test at the Nepalgunj-based Bheri Hospital.
As many as eight persons receiving treatment for COVID-19 transmission at the Biratnagar-based Koshi Hospital tested negative for the infection. All of those, patients have been discharged following full recovery.
In one of today’s major developments, it was informed that the government was planning to implement ‘pool testing’ for detecting the positive COVID-19 cases. Pool testing enables to carry out more testing with less testing reagents, which would pace the testing efforts.
Seventy-two people are currently receiving treatment for COVID-19 at various health facilities across the country — one in Dhangadhi, one in Bharatpur, 26 in Birgunj, 17 in Biratnagar, three in Rupandehi, and 24 in Nepalgunj. All the patients are reported to be in normal health condition.
Dr Devkota, speaking on behalf of the ministry, appealed the public to refrain from excessive consumption of alcohol as it weakens immunity putting people at added risk of COVID-19 infection.
He further advised people to engage in creative and productive manuvers while in quarantines as suicide cases following distress during the lockdown had come into the Ministry’s attention.
