Source::Xinhuanet
XINHUA/RSS
Nepal Wednesday reported 246 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day record, taking the death toll from the disease to 5,657. The latest data released by the Ministry of Health and Population showed that the total COVID-19 cases stood at 480,418, with 8,064 new infections confirmed in the past 24 hours.
As the country has been exposed to the variants of coronavirus first spotted in neighboring India, Nepal has seen over 100 deaths each day since May 10 and the figure rose to about 200 per day in the last week, according to the ministry. Nepal has been suffering from the second wave of COVID-19 since early April, which led to the growing deaths and the Nepali officials have attributed the surge to the new variants.
"The new variants of virus are more offensive, infectious and deadly and have been the cause of increasing deaths," Dr. Hemanta Chandra Ojha, chief of the Zoonotic and Other Communicable Disease Control Section at the health ministry told Xinhua. The health ministry on Tuesday confirmed the presence of two variants of COVID-19 in Nepal, B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2, both first spotted in India.
Nepal is now seeking more oxygen cylinders and other medical supplies to treat more patients.
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