BIRGUNJ: In a grim milestone, Nepal's COVID-19 tally has reached one case shy of hundred, where 17 positive cases were detected on Wednesday alone in Birgunj of Parsa district.

All of the patients, have been admitted to Birgunj-based Narayani Hospital, where eleven patients of COVID-19 infection are already admitted and currently receiving treatment.

With the recent addition of patients of the novel infection, 28 persons are now being treated at the health facility.

The hospital has a capacity to treat 75 patients at a single time and only one ventilator is available in the operation theater of the hospital, informed medical superintendent Dr Madan Upadhyaya.

This insufficiency poses as an obstacle for the treatment of COVID-19 patients at the hospital.

Among the newly infected, seven are females while 10 are males. Their ages range from two months to 66 years. According to Spokesperson at the Ministry of Health, Dr Bikash Devkota, their throat swab specimen sent from Birgunj were tested at the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) in Kathmandu.